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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES 


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OXFORD 


AND    HER    COLLEGES 


a  FldD  from  tlje  Baticliffe  HibraTs 


BY 


GOLDWIN   SMITH,   D.C.L. 

AUTHOR  OF  '•  THE  UNITED  STATES  :  AN  OUTLINE  OF 
POLITICAL  HISTORY,"  ETC. 


WITH   ILLUSTRATIONS  REPRODUCED  FROM   PHOTOGRAPHS 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 

AND  LONDON 

1895 
All  rights  reservtd 


4 


ConnacHT,  1893, 
By  MACMILLAN  AND  CO. 


i 


n 


XorfnooH  i^rtss : 

J.  8.  Cnihing  *  Co.  -  Berwick  k  «m^^^, 
Norwood,  Mam.,  U.SJL 


^ti 


PREFACE. 


m 


T^HE  writer  has  seldoin  enjoyed  himself 
more  than  in  showing  an  American 
friend  over  Oxford.  He  has  felt  some- 
thing of  the  same  enjoyment  in  prepar- 
ing, with  the  hope  of  interesting  some 
American  visitors,  this  outline  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  University  and  her  Colleges. 
He  would  gladly  believe  that  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  having  now,  by  emancipation 
and  reform,  been  reunited  to  the  nation, 
may  also  be  reunited  to  the  race;  and 
that  to  them,  not  less  than  to  the  Uni- 
versities of  Germany,  the  eyes  of  Ameri- 


Vl 


PREFACE. 


5i 


cans  desirous  of  studying  at  a  European 
as  well  as  at  an  American  University  may 
henceforth  be  turned. 

It  was  once  the  writer's  duty,  in  the 
service  of  a  Royal  Commission  of  Inquiry, 
to  make  himself  well  acquainted  with  the 
archives  of  the  University  and  its  Col- 
leges. But  he  has  also  availed  himself 
of  a  number  of  recent  publications,  such 
as  the  series  of  the  Oxford  Historical 
Society,  the  history  of  the  University  by 
Mr.  Maxwell  Lyte,  and  the  volume  on 
the  Colleges  of  Oxford  and  their  tradi- 
tions, edited  by  Mr.  Andrew  Clark,  as 
well  as  of  the  excellent  little  Guide  pub- 
lished by  Messrij.  James  Parker  and  Co. 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


"^ 


|0  gain  a  view  of  Oxford  from  a 
central  point,  we  mount  to  the  top 
of  the  Radcliffe  Library.  We 
will  hope  that  it  is  a  fine  summer  day, 
that,  as  we  come  out  upon  the  roof,  the 
old  city,  with  all  its  academical  build- 
ings lying  among  their  gardens  and 
groves,  presents  itself  to  view  in  its 
beauty,  and  that  the  sound  of  its  bells, 
awakening  the  memories  of  the  ages,  is  in 
the  air.  The  city  is  seen  lying  on  the 
spit  of  gravel   between   the  Isis,  as  the 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


Thames  is  here  called,  which  is  the  scene 
of  boat  races,  and  the  Cherwell,  famed  for 
water-lilies.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the 
name  means  the  ford  of  the  oxen,  or  the 
ford  of  the  river  {oxen  being  a  corruption 
of  onsen).  Flat,  sometimes  flooded,  is  the 
site.  To  ancient  founders  of  cities,  a  river 
for  water  carriage  and  rich  meads  for  kine 
were  prime  attractions.  But  beyond  the 
flat  we  look  to  a  lovely  country,  rolling 
and  sylvan,  from  many  points  of  which, 
Wytham,  Hinksey,  Bagley,  Headington, 
Elsfield,  Stowe  Wood,  are  charming  views, 
nearer  or  more  distant,  of  the  city.  Tur- 
ner's view  is  taken  from  Bagley,  but  it  is 
rather  a  Turner  poem  than  a  simple  pict- 
ure of  Oxford. 


9 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


8 


There  is  in  Oxford  much  that  is  not 
as  old  as  it  looks.  The  buildings  of 
the  Bodleian  Library,  University  College, 
Oriel,  Exeter,  and  some  others,  mediaeval 
or  half  mediaeval  in  their  style,  are  Stuart 
in  date.  In  Oxford  the  Middle  Ages 
lingered  long.  Yon  cupola  of  Christ 
Church  is  the  work  of  Wren,  yon  towers 
of  All  Souls'  are  the  work  of  a  still  later 
hand.  The  Headington  stone,  quickly 
growing  black  and  crumbling,  gives  the 
buildings  a  false  hue  of  antiquity.  An 
American  visitor,  misled  by  the  blackness 
of  University  College,  remarked  to  his 
host  that  the  buildings  must  be  im- 
mensely old.  **  No,"  replied  his  host, 
"their  colour  deceives  you;  their  age  is 


I 


I 


I 


4 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


not  more  than  two  hundred  years."  It 
need  not  be  said  that  Palladian  edifices 
like  Queen's,  or  the  new  buildings  of 
Magdalen,  are  not  the  work  of  a  Chaplain 
of  Edward  III.,  or  a  Chancellor  of  Henry 
VI.  But  of  the  University  buildings,  St. 
Mary's  Church  and  the  Divinity  School, 
of  the  College  buildings,  the  old  quad- 
rangles of  Merton,  New  College,  Mag- 
dalen, Brasenose,  and  detached  pieces  not 
a  few  are  genuine  Gothic  of  the  Founders' 
age.  Here  are  six  centuries,  if  you  choose 
to  include  the  Norman  castle,  here  are 
eight  centuries,  and,  if  you  choose  to  in- 
clude certain  Saxon  remnants  in  Christ 
Church  Cathedral,  here  are  ten  centuries, 
chronicled   in  stone.     Of   the   corporate 


-  •  •»   •■  « 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES.  5 

lives  of  these  Colleges,  the  threads  have 
run  unbroken  through  all  the  changes  and 
revolutions,  political,  religious,  and  social, 
between  the  Barons'  War  and  the  present 
hour.  The  economist  goes  to  their  muni- 
ment rooms  for  the  record  of  domestic 
management  and  expenditure  during  those 
ages.  Till  yesterday,  the  codes  of  statutes 
embodying  their  domestic  law,  though 
largely  obsolete,  remained  unchanged. 
Nowhere  else  in  England,  at  all  events, 
unless  it  be  at  the  sister  University,  can 
the  eye  and  mind  feed  upon  so  much 
antiquity,  certainly  not  upon  so  much 
antique  beauty,  as  on  the  spot  where  we 
stand.  That  all  does  not  belong  to  the 
same  remote  antiquity,  adds  to  the  inter- 


i 


6 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ill 


1    1 


est  and  to  the  charm.  This  great  home 
of  learning,  with  its  many  architectures, 
has  been  handed  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, each  generation  making  its  own 
improvements,  impressing  its  own  tastes, 
embodying  its  own  tendencies,  down  to 
the  present  hour.  It  is  like  a  great  family 
mansion,  which  owner  after  owner  has 
enlarged  or  improved  to  meet  his  own 
needs  or  tastes,  and  which,  thus  chroni- 
cling successive  phases  of  social  and 
domestic  life,  is  wanting  in  uniformity  but 
not  in  living  interest  or  beauty. 


\'4 


Oxford  is  a  federation  of  Colleges.  It 
had  been  strictly  so  for  two  centuries, 
and  every  student  had  been  required  to 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


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be  a  member  of  a  College  when,  in  1856, 
non-collegiate  students,  of  whom  there 
are  now  a  good  many,  were  admitted. 
The  University  is  the  federal  government. 
The  Chancellor,  its  nominal  head,  is  a 
non-resident  grandee,  usually  a  political 
leader  whom  the  University  delights  to 
honour  and  whose  protection  it  desires. 
Only  on  great  state  occasions  does  he 
appear  in  his  gown  richly  embroidered 
with  gold.  The  acting  chief  is  the  Vice- 
Chancellor,  one  of  the  heads  of  Colleges, 
who  marches  with  the  Bedel  carrying  the 
mace  before  him,  and  has  been  sometimes 
taken  by  strangers  for  the  attendant  of 
the  Bedel.  With  him  are  the  two  Proc- 
tors, denoted  by  their  velvet  sleeves,  named 


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8 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


by  the  Colleges  in  turn,  the  guardians 
of  University  discipline.  The  University 
Legislature  consists  of  three  houses, — 
an  elective  Council,  made  up  equally  of 
heads  of  Colleges,  professors,  and  Masters 
of  Arts;  the  Congregation  of  residents, 
mostly  teachers  of  the  University  or  Col- 
leges; and  the  Convocation,  which  con- 
sists of  all  Masters  of  Arts,  resident  or 
non-resident,  if  they  are  present  to  vote. 
Congregation  numbers  four  hundred.  Con- 
vocation nearly  six  thousand.  Legislation 
is  initiated  by  the  Council,  and  has  to 
make  its  way  through  Convocation  and 
Congregation,  with  some  chance  of  being 
wrecked  between  the  academical  Congre- 
gation, which  is  progressive,  and  the  rural 


I 
I 


I! : 


■I 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 

Convocation,  which  is  conservative.  The 
University  regulates  the  general  studies, 
holds  all  the  examinations,  except  that  at 
entrance,  which  is  held  by  the  Colleges, 
confers  all  the  degrees  and  honours,  and 
furnishes  the  police  of  the  academical  city. 
Its  professors  form  the  general  and  supe- 
rior staff  of  teachers. 


Each  College,  at  the  same  time,  is  a 
little  polity  in  itself.  It  has  its  own 
governing  body,  consisting  of  a  Head 
(President,  Master,  Principal,  Provost,  or 
Warden)  and  a  body  of  Fellows.  It  holds 
its  own  estates;  noble  estates,  some  of 
them  are.  It  has  its  private  staff  of 
teachers  or  tutors,  usually  taken  from  the 


i 


10 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


:n 


it 


iii 


i 


Fellows,  though  the  subjects  of  teaching 
are  those  recognised  by  the  University 
examinations.  The  relation  between  the 
tutor's  teaching  and  that  of  the  professor 
is  rather  unsettled  and  debatable,  varying 
in  some  measure  with  the  subjects,  since 
physical  science  can  be  taught  only  in 
the  professor's  lecture-room,  while  classics 
and  mathematics  can  be  taught  in  the 
class-room  of  the  tutor.  Before  1856  the 
professorial  system  of  teaching  had  long 
lain  in  abeyance,  and  the  tutorial  system 
had  prevailed  alone.  Each  College  ad- 
ministers its  domestic  discipline.  The 
University  Proctor,  if  he  chases  a  student 
to  the  College  gates,  must  there  halt  and 
apply  to  the  College  for  extradition.     To 


^ 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


11 


the  College  the  student  immediately  be- 
longs; it  is  responsible  for  his  character 
and  habits.  The  personal  relations  be- 
tween him  and  his  tutor  are,  or  ought  to 
be,  close.  Oxford  life  hitherto  has  been 
a  College  life.  To  his  College  the  Oxford 
man  has  mainly  looked  back.  Here  his 
early  friendships  have  been  formed.  In 
these  societies  the  ruling  class  of  England, 
the  lay  professions  and  landed  gentry 
mingling  with  the  clergy,  has  been  bred. 
It  is  to  the  College,  generally,  that  bene- 
factions and  bequests  are  given ;  with  the 
College  that  the  rich  and  munificent 
alumnus  desires  to  unite  his  name;  in 
the  College  Hall  that  he  hopes  his  por- 
trait will  hang,  to  be  seen  with  grateful 


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12 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


eyes.  The  University,  however,  shares 
the  attachment  of  the  alumnus.  Go  to 
yonder  river  on  an  evening  of  the  College 
boat  races,  or  to  yonder  cricket  ground 
when  a  College  match  is  being  played, 
and  you  will  see  the  strength  of  College 
feeling.  At  a  University  race  or  match 
in  London  the  Oxford  or  Cambridge  sen- 
timent appears.  In  an  American  Uni- 
versity there  is  nothing  like  the  College 
bond,  unless  it  be  that  of  the  Secret,  or, 
to  speak  more  reasonably,  the  Greek  Let- 
ter societies,  which  form  inner  social  cir- 
cles with  a  sentiment  of  their  own. 


u 


The    buildings   of    the    University   lie 
mainly  in   the  centre   of   the   city   close 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


13 


around  us.  There  is  the  Convocation 
House,  the  hall  of  the  University  Legis- 
lature, where,  in  times  of  collision  between 
theological  parties,  or  between  the  party 
of  the  ancient  system  of  education  and 
that  of  the  modern  system,  lively  debates 
have  been  heard.  In  it,  also,  are  con- 
ferred the  ordinary  degrees.  They  are 
still  conferred  in  the  religious  form  of 
words,  handed  down  from  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  candidate  kneeling  down  before 
the  Vice-Chancellor  in  the  posture  of 
mediaeval  homage.  Oxford  is  the  classic 
ground  of  old  forms  and  ceremonies. 
Before  each  degree  is  conferred,  the  Proc- 
tors march  up  and  down  the  House  to 
give  any  objector  to  the  degree  —  an  un- 


1 

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; 

'  \1 

, 

M-         11 

1 

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s.: 


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it 


14 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ii 


satisfied  creditor,  for  example — the  oppor- 
tunity of  entering  a  caveat  by  "  plucking  " 
the  Proctor's  sleeve.  Adjoining  the  Con- 
vocation House  is  the  Divinity  School, 
the  only  building  of  the  University,  sav- 
ing St.  Mary's  Church,  which  dates  from 
the  Middle  Ages.  A  very  beautiful  relic 
of  the  Middle  Ages  it  is  when  seen  from 
the  gardens  of  Exeter  College.  Here  are 
held  the  examinations  for  degrees  in  the- 
ology, styled,  in  the  Oxford  of  old,  queen 
of  the  sciences,  and  long  their  tyrant. 
Here,  again,  is  the  Sheldonian  Theatre, 
the  gift  of  Archbishop  Sheldon,  a  Primate 
of  the  Restoration  period,  and  as  readers 
of  Pepys's  "  Diary  "  know,  of  Restoration 
character,  but  a  patron  of  learning.     Uni- 


n     i 

I 


oppor- 
king  " 
:  Con- 
chool, 
r,  sav- 
from 
relic 
from 
•e  are 
I  the- 
jueen 
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Uni- 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


15 


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versity  exercises  used,  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  to  be  performed  in  St.  Mary's 
Church.  In  those  days  the  church  was 
the  public  building  for  all  purposes,  that 
of  a  theatre  among  the  rest.  But  the 
Anglican  was  more  scrupulous  in  his  use 
of  the  sacred  edifice  than  the  Roman 
Catholic.  In  the  Sheldonian  Theatre  is 
held  the  annual  commemoration  of  Found- 
ers and  benefactors,  the  grand  academical 
festival,  at  which  the  Doctorate  appears 
in  its  pomp  of  scarlet,  filing  in  to  the 
sound  of  the  organ,  the  prize  poems  and 
essays  are  read,  and  the  honorary  degrees 
are  conferred  in  the  presence  of  a  gala 
crowd  of  visitors  drawn  by  the  summer 
beauty  of  Oxford  and  the  pleasures  that 


1*^ 


16 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


^1' 


.11 


close  the  studious  year.  In  former  days 
the  ceremony  used  to  be  enlivened  and 
sometimes  disgraced  by  the  jests  of  the 
terrcB  Jilius^  a  licensed  or  tolerated  buffoon 
whose  personalities  provoked  the  indigna- 
tion of  Evelyn,  and  in  one  case,  at  least, 
were  visited  with  expulsion.  It  is  now 
enlivened,  and,  as  visitors  think,  some- 
times disgraced,  by  the  uproarious  jok- 
ing of  the  undergraduates'  gallery.  This 
modern  license  the  authorities  of  the 
University  are  believed  to  have  brought 
on  themselves  by  encouraging  political 
demonstrations.  The  Sheldonian  Thea- 
tre is  also  the  scene  of  grand  receptions, 
and  of  the  inauguration  of  the  Chancellor. 
That  flaunting  portrait  of  George  IV.  in 


w 


■  ; 


■  * 


i 


days 
and 
F  the 
Toon 
igna. 
east, 
now 
)me- 
jok- 
rhis 
the 
ght 
ical 
Lea- 
ns, 
or. 
in 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


17 


his  royal  robes,  by  Lawrence,  with  the  mili- 
tary portraits  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
and  the  King  of  Prussia  by  which  it  is 
flanked  and  its  gorgeousness  is  rebuked, 
mark  the  triumphs  of  the  monarchs,  whose 
cause  had  become  that  of  European  inde- 
pendence, over  Napoleon.  Perhaps  the 
most  singular  ceremony  witnessed  by 
these  walls  was  the  inauguration  of  the 
Iron  Duke  as  Chancellor  of  the  Univer- 
sity. This  was  the  climax  of  Oxford 
devotion  to  the  Tory  party,  and  such  was 
the  gathering  as  to  cause  it  to  be  said  that 
if  the  roof  of  the  Sheldonian  Theatre  had 
then  fallen  in,  the  party  would  have  been 
extinguished.  The  Duke,  as  if  to  mark 
the  incongruity,  put  on  his  academical  cap 

0 


18 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


m 


! 


W^ 


with  the  wrong  side  in  front,  and  in  read- 
ing his  Latin  speech,  lapsed  into  a  thun- 
dering false  quantity. 

The  Clarendon  was  built  with  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  history  written  by  the  Min- 
ister of  the  early  Restoration,  who  was 
Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  whose 
touching  letter  of  farewell  to  her,  on  his 
fall  and  flight  from  England,  may  be  seen 
in  the  Bodleian  Library.  There,  also, 
are  preserved  documents  which  may  help 
to  explain  his  fall.  They  are  the  written 
dialogues  which  passed  between  him  and 
his  master  at  the  board  of  the  Privy 
Council,  and  they  show  that  Clarendon, 
having  been  the  political  tutor  of  Charles 
the  exile,  too  much  bore  himself  as  the 


■  t 

I 

W 


i 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


19 


political  tutor  of  Charles  the  king.  In 
the  Clarendon  are  the  University  Council 
Chamber  and  the  Registry.  Once  it  was 
the  University  press,  but  the  press  has 
now  a  far  larger  mansion  yonder  to  the 
north-west,  whence,  besides  works  of  learn- 
ing and  science,  go  forth  Bibles  and  prayer- 
books  in  all  languages  to  all  quarters  of 
the  globe.  Legally,  as  a  printer  of  Bibles 
the  University  has  a  privilege,  but  its  real 
privilege  is  that  which  it  secures  for  itself 
by  the  most  scrupulous  accuracy  and  by 
infinitesimal  profits. 

Close  by  is  the  University  Library,  the 
Bodleian,  one  of  those  great  libraries  of 
the  world  in  which  you  can  ring  up  at  a 
few  minutes'  notice  almost  any  author  of 


•;  t 


t 


20 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


.1 


^ii"^ 


r 

i 


any  age  or  country.  This  Library  is  one 
of  those  entitled  by  law  to  a  copy  of  every 
book  printed  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
it  is  bound  to  preserve  all  that  it  receives, 
a  duty  which  might  in  the  end  burst  any 
building,  were  it  not  that  the  paper  of 
many  modern  books  is  happily  perishable. 
A  foundation  was  laid  for  a  University 
Library  in  the  days  of  Henry  VL,  by  the 
good  Duke  Humphrey  of  Gloucester,  who 
gave  a  collection  of  books.  But  in  the 
rough  times  which  followed,  the  Duke's 
donation  perished,  only  two  or  three  pre- 
cious relics  being  saved  from  the  wreck. 
Sir  Thomas  Bodley,  a  wealthy  knight  and 
diplomatist  of  the  time  of  James  L,  it  was 
who  reared  this  pile,  severely  square  and 


i 


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I 


Bi. 


2 
< 

UJ 

Q 
O 
03 

UJ 

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H 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


21 


bare,  though  a  skilful  variation  of  the 
string  course  in  the  different  stories  some- 
what relieves  its  heaviness.  In  the  an- 
tique reading-room,  breathing  study,  and 
not  overthronged  with  readers,  the  book- 
worm finds  a  paradise.  Over  the  Library 
is  the  University  Gallery,  the  visitor  to 
which  is  entreated  to  avert  his  eyes  from 
the  fictitious  portraits  of  founders  of  early 
Colleges,  and  to  fix  them,  if  he  will,  on  the 
royal  portraits  which  painfully  attest  the 
loyalty  of  the  University,  or,  as  a  relief 
from  these,  on  Guy  Fawkes's  lantern. 
Beneath  the  Library  used  to  be  the 
Schools  or  examination-rooms  of  the  Uni- 
versity, scenes  of  youthful  hopes  and  fears; 
perhaps,  as  the  aspirants  to  honours  were 


22 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


a  minority,  of  more  fears  than  hopes;  and 
at  those  doors  formerly  gathered  the  eager 
crowd  of  candidates  and  their  friends  to 
read  the  class  lists  which  were  posted 
there.  But  the  examination  system  has 
outgrown  its  ancient  tenement  and  mi- 
grated to  yonder  new-built  pile  in  High 
Street,  more  fitted,  perhaps,  by  its  elabo- 
rate ornamentation  for  the  gala  and  the 
dance,  than  for  the  torture  of  undergrad- 
uates. In  the  quadrangle  of  the  Bodleian 
sits  aloft,  on  the  face  of  a  towe/  displaying 
all  the  orders  of  classical  architecture,  the 
learned  King  and  royal  theologian.  The 
Bible  held  in  his  hand  is  believed  to 
have  fallen  down  on  the  day  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  lost   his  election  as   Member 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


23 


for  the  University  of  Oxford  and  set 
forth  on  a  career  of  liberalism  which  has 
since  led  him  to  the  disestablishment 
of  the  Church.  We  stand  on  the  Rad- 
cliffe,  formerly  the  medical  and  physical 
library,  now  a  supplement  and  an  addi- 
tional reading-room  of  the  Bodleian,  the 
gift  of  Dr.  Radcliffe,  Court  Physician  and 
despot  of  the  profession  in  the  times  of 
William  and  Anne,  of  whose  rough  say- 
ings, and  sayings  more  than  rough,  some 
are  preserved  in  his  "  Life."  He  it  was 
who  told  William  III.  that  he  would  not 
have  His  Majesty's  two  legs  for  his  three 
kingdoms,  and  who  is  said  to  have  Dun- 
ished  the  giver  of  a  niggardly  fee  by  a 
prediction  of  death,  which  was  fulfil)  ed  by 


24 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


I 


i',' 


•1' 


the  terrors  of  the  patient.  Close  at  hand 
is  the  Ashmolean,  the  old  University 
Museum,  now  only  a  museum  of  antiqui- 
ties, the  most  precious  of  which  is  King 
Alfred's  gem.  Museum  and  Medical  Li- 
brary have  together  migrated  to  the  new 
edifice  on  the  north  side  of  the  city. 

But  of  all  the  University  buildings  the 
mosc  beautiful  is  St.  Mary's  Church,  where 
the  University  sermons  are  preached,  and 
from  the  pulpit  of  which,  in  the  course  of 
successive  generations  and  successive  con- 
troversies, a  changeful  and  often  heady 
current  of  theology  has  flowed.  There 
preached  Newman,  Pusey,  and  Manning; 
there  preached  Hampden,  Stanley,  an' 
the  authors  of  "  Essays  and  Reviews." 


md 
iity 
[ui- 
ing 
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of 
3n- 
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Hi 
X 
H 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


25 


Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  not  at 
first  Universities  of  Colleges.  The  Col- 
leges were  after-growths  which  for  a  time 
absorbed  the  University.  The  University 
of  Oxford  was  born  in  the  twelfth  century, 
fully  a  century  before  the  foundation  of 
the  first  College.  To  recall  the  Oxford 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  one  must  bid 
vanish  all  the  buildings  which  now  meet 
our  eyes,  except  yonder  grim  castle  to 
the  west  of  the  city,  and  the  stern  tower 
of  St.  Michael's  Church,  at  once  the  bell 
tow^er  of  the  Church  and  a  defence  of 
the  city  gate  facing  the  dangerous  north. 
The  man-at-arms  from  the  castle,  the  war- 
der from  the  gate,  looks  down  upon  a 
city  of  five  or  six  thousand  inhabitants, 


pi 


i 


11  ':  '  ■» 


26 


OXFORD   AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


huddled  for  protection  under  the  castle, 
and  within  those  walls  of  which  a  fine 
remnant  is  seen  bounding  the  domain  of 
New  College.  In  this  city  there  is  a 
concourse  of  students  brought  together 
to  hear  a  body  of  teachers  who  have  been 
led,  we  know  not  how,  to  open  their  mart 
of  knowledge  here.  Printing  not  having 
been  invented,  and  books  being  scarce, 
the  fountain  of  knowledge  is  the  lecture- 
room  of  the  professor.  It  is  the  age  of 
an  intellectual  revival  so  remarkable  as 
to  be  called  the  Mediaeval  Renaissance. 
After  the  migrations  and  convulsions,  by 
which  the  world  was  cast  in  a  new  mould, 
ensues  a  reign  of  comparative  peace  and 
settled  government,  under  which  the  de- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


27 


ri 


Sire  of  knowledge  has  been  reawakened. 
Universities   have  been   coming   out    all 
over  Europe  like  stars  in  the  night ;  Paris, 
famous  for  theology  and  philosophy,  per- 
haps being  the  brightest  of  the  constella- 
tion, while   Bologna  was  famed  for  law 
and  Salerno  for  medicine.     It  was  prob- 
ably in  the  reign   of    Henry  I.  that  the 
company  of   teachers   settled   at   Oxford, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury students  had  collected  to  a  number 
which  fable  exaggerates  to  thirty  thousand, 
but   which   was   really  large   enough    to 
crowd  the  little  city  and  even  the  bastions 
of  its  walls.     A  light  had  shone  on  youths 
who  sat  in  the  shadow  of  feudal  servitude. 
There  is  no  more  romantic  period  in  the 


I    1-4 


HM    ', 


28 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


history  of  human  intellect  than  the  thir- 
teenth century. 

The  teachers,  after  the  fashion  of  that 
age,  formed  themselves  into  a  guild,  which 
guarded  its  monopoly.  The  undergradu- 
ate was  the  apprentice;  the  degree  was 
a  license  to  teach,  and  carried  with  it 
the  duty  of  teaching,  though  in  time  it 
became  a  literary  title,  unconnected  with 
teaching,  and  coveted  for  its  own  sake. 
The  University  obtained  a  charter,  elected 
its  Chancellor,  formed  its  academical  Leg- 
islature of  graduates,  obtained  jurisdiction 
over  its  own  members.  In  time  it  mar- 
shalled its  teachers  and  students  into 
regular  Faculties  of  theology,  law,  and 
medicine,  with  arts,  or  general  and  liberal 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


29 


culture,  if  the  name  can  be  applied  to 
anything  so  rudimentary  as  the  literature 
and  science  of  that  day,  forming  the  basis 
of  all.  At  first  the  professors  taught 
where  they  could;  in  the  cloisters,  per- 
haps, of  St.  Frydeswide's  monastery,  sub- 
sequently absorbed  by  Christ  Church ;  in 
the  porches  of  houses.  A  row  of  lecture- 
rooms,  called  the  Schools,  was  afterwards 
provided  in  School  Street,  which  ran  north 
and  south  just  under  the  Radcliffe.  So 
little  anchored  was  the  University  by 
buildings,  that  when  maltreated  at  Oxford 
it  was  ready  to  pack  up  its  literary  wares 
and  migrate  to  another  city  such  as 
Northampton  or  Stamford.  Many  of  the 
undergraduates  at  first  were  mere  boys, 


\ 


1 


30 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


to  whom  the  University  was  a  grammar 
school.  For  the  real  University  students 
the  dominant  study  was  that  of  the  School 
philosophy,  logical  and  philosophical,  with 
its  strange  metaphysical  jargon ;  an  im- 
mense attempt  to  extract  knowledge  from 
consciousness  by  syllogistic  reasoning,  in- 
stead of  gathering  it  from  observation, 
experience,  and  research,  mocking  by  its 
barrenness  of  fruit  the  faith  of  the  enthu- 
siastic student,  yet  training  the  mind  to 
preternatural  acuteness,  and  perhaps  form- 
ing a  necessary  stage  in  the  mental  educa- 
tion of  the  race.  The  great  instrument 
of  high  education  was  disputation,  often 
repeated,  and  conducted  with  the  most 
elaborate  forms  in  the  tournaments  of  the 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


31 


Schools,  which  might  beget  readiness  of 
wit  and  promptness  of  elocution,  but  could 
hardly  beget  habits  of  calm  investigation 
or  paramount  love  of  truth.  The  great 
event  in  the  academical  life  was  Incep- 
tion, when  the  student  performed  exercises 
which  inaugurated  his  teachership;  and 
this  was  commonly  celebrated  by  a  feast, 
the  expenditure  on  which  the  University 
was  called  upon  to  restrain.  Oxford  pro- 
duced some  of  the  greatest  schoolmen: 
Duns  Scotus,  the  "subtle,'*  who  had 
written  thirteen  folio  volumes  of  arid 
metaphysics  before  his  early  death;  Brad- 
wardine,  the  "profound,"  and  Ockham, 
the  "invincible  and  unmatched."  The 
idol  was  Aristotle,  viewed  mainly  as  the 


l.")^'' 


1. 


u 

•I 


( 


i 

I  • 

I 


ii 


1  1, 


82 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


metaphysician,  and  imperfectly  understood 
through  translations.  To  reconcile  Aris- 
totelian speculation  with  orthodox  theology 
was  a  hard  task,  not  always  successfully 
performed.  Theology  was,  of  course,  first 
in  dignity  of  the  Faculties,  but  the  most 
lucrative  was  the  civil  and  canon  law 
practised  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts  and, 
as  Roman,  misliked  by  the  patriotic  Par- 
liament. Philosophy  complained  that  it 
had  to  trudge  afoot  while  the  liegemen 
of  Justinian  rode  high  in  the  car  of  pre- 
ferment. Of  physical  science  the  hour 
was  not  yet  come,  but  before  its  hour 
came  its  wonderful  and  almost  miraculous 
precursor,  Roger  Bacon,  who  anticipated 
the  invention  of  gunpowder  and  the  tele- 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


88 


scope,  and  whose  fabled  study  stood  over 
Folly  Bridge,  till,  with  Carfax's  monument 
and  Cranmer's  prison,  it  was  cleared  away 
by  an  improving  city  corporation.  Roger 
Bacon  was,  of  course,  taken  for  a  dealer  in 
black  arts ;  an  astrologer  and  an  alchemist 
he  was,  and  at  the  same  time  an  illustrious 
example  of  the  service  indirectly  rendered 
by  astrology  and  alchemy  in  luring  to  an 
investigation  of  nature  which  led  to  real 
discoveries,  just  as  Columbus,  seeking  a 
western  passage  to  the  golden  cities  of  the 
East,  discovered  America. 


All  the  Universities  belonged  not  to  one 
nation  but  to  Latin  Christendom,  the  edu- 
cated population  of  which  circulated  among 


FT 


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V 


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'^^ 


S   .5 


34 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


them.  At  one  time  there  was  a  migration 
to  Oxford  from  the  University  of  Paris, 
which  had  got  into  trouble  with  the  gov- 
ernment. Of  all  the  Universities  alike,  ec- 
clesiastical Latin  was  the  language.  The 
scholars  all  ranked  with  the  clerical  order, 
so  that  at  Oxford,  scholar  and  clerk,  towns- 
man and  layman,  were  convertible  terms. 
In  those  days  all  intellectual  callings,  and 
even  the  higher  mechanical  arts,  were 
clerical.  The  student  was  exempted  by 
his  tonsure  from  lay  jurisdiction.  The  Pa- 
pacy anxiously  claimed  the  Universities 
as  parts  of  its  realm,  and  only  degrees 
granted  by  the  Pope's  authority  were  cur- 
rent throughout  Christendom.  When, 
with    Edward   III.,    came   the   long  war 


'If 


i 


''^'v*^  rr   jr,,«ir,  ■i^r-^'!'' 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


35 


between  England  and  France,  and  when 
the  confederation  of  Latin  Christendom 
was  beginning  to  break  up,  the  English 
Universities  grew  more  national. 


Incorporated  with  the  buildings  of  Wor- 
cester College  are  some  curious  little  tene- 
ments once  occupied  by  a  colony  from 
different  Benedictine  Monasteries.  These, 
with  the  Church  of  St.  Frydeswide,  now 
Christ  Church  Cathedral,  and  the  small 
remains  of  Osney  Abbey,  are  about  the 
only  relics  of  monastic  Oxford  which  sur- 
vived the  Reformation.  But  in  the  Middle 
Ages  there  were  Houses  for  novices  of  the 
great  Orders,  Benedictines,  Cistercians, 
Carmelites,  Augustinians,  and  most  notable 


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"i 

1    f^ 

« 

(I 


? 


M 


vM 


!|1i 


36 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


and  powerful  of  all,  the  two  great  mendi- 
cant Orders  of  Dominicans  and  Francis- 
cans. The  Mendicants,  who  came  into 
the  country  angels  of  humility  as  well  as 
of  asceticism,  begging  their  bread,  and 
staining  the  ground  with  the  blood  from 
their  shoeless  feet,  soon  changed  their 
character,  and  began  in  the  interest  of 
Holy  Church  to  grasp  power  and  amass 
wealth.  The  Franciscans  especially,  like 
the  Jesuits  of  an  after  day,  strove  to  master 
the  centres  of  intellectual  influence.  They 
strove  to  put  the  laws  of  the  University 
under  their  feet.  Struggles  between  them 
and  the  seculars,  with  appeals  to  the  Crown, 
were  the  consequence.  Attraction  of  cal- 
low youth  to  an  angelic  life  seems  to  have 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


37 


been  characteristic  of  the  Brethren  of  St. 
Francis,  and  it  is  conjectured  that  in  this 
way  Bacon  became  a  monk.  Faintly  pat- 
ronised by  a  liberal  and  lettered  Pope,  he 
was  arraigned  for  necromancy  by  his  Order, 
and  ended  his  days  in  gloom,  if  not  in  a 
monastic  prison.  The  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  with  one  hand  helped  to 
open  the  door  of  knowledge,  with  the  other 
she  sought  to  close  it.  At  last  she  sought 
to  close  it  with  both  hands,  and  in  her 
cruel  panic  established  the  Inquisition. 


Tory  in  its  later  days,  the  University 
was  liberal  in  its  prime.  It  took  the  part 
of  the  Barons  and  De  Montfort  d  ^ainst 
Henry  III.,  and   a  corps  of  its  students 


w 


mmfms^ 


K^'    « 


*^  I- 


'i  f 


I 


38 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


^ij 


fought  against  the  King  under  their  own 
banner  at  Northampton.  Instead  of  being 
the  stronghold  of  reaction,  it  was  the  focus 
of  active,  even  of  turbulent  aspiration,  and 
the  saying  ran,  that  when  there  was  fight- 
ing at  Oxford  there  was  war  in  England. 
Oxford's  hero  in  the  thirteenth  century 
w^as  its  Chancellor,  Grosseteste,  the  friend 
of  De  Montfort  and  the  great  reformer  of 
his  day,  "  of  prelates  the  rebuker,  of  monks 
the  corrector,  of  scholars  the  instructor, 
of  the  people  the  preacher,  of  the  inconti- 
nent the  chastiser,  of  writings  the  in- 
dustrious investigator,  of  the  Romans  the 
hammer  and  contemner."  If  Grosseteste 
patronised  the  Friars,  it  was  in  their 
first  estate. 


mmm 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


39 


At  first  the  students  lodged  as  "  Cham- 
berdekyns  "  with  citizens,  but  that  system 
proving  dangerous  to  order,  they  were 
gathered  into  hostels,  or,  to  use  the  more 
dignified  name.  Halls  {aulce)  under  a  Prin- 
cipal, or  Master  of  the  University,  who 
boarded  and  governed  them.  Of  these 
Halls  there  were  a  great  number,  with 
their  several  names  and  signs.  Till  lately 
a  few  of  them  remained,  though  these  had 
lost  their  original  character,  and  become 
merely  small  Colleges,  without  any  foun- 
dation except  a  Principal.  The  students 
in  those  days  were  mostly  poor.  Their 
indigence  was  almost  taken  for  granted. 
Some  of  them  begged ;  chests  were  pro- 
vided by  the  charitable  for  loans  to  them. 


1 1. 


:( 


M 


ili 


>  i\ 


m 


40 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


A  poor  student's  life  was  hard ;  if  he  was 
earnest  in  study,  heroic.  He  shared  a 
room  with  three  or  four  chums,  he  slept 
under  a  rug,  his  fare  was  coarse  and 
scanty,  his  garment  was  the  gown  which 
has  now  become  merely  an  academical 
symbol,  and  thankful  he  was  to  be  pro- 
vided with  a  new  one.  He  had  no  fire  in 
his  room,  no  glass  in  his  window.  As  his 
exercises  in  the  University  Schools  began 
at  five  in  the  morning,  it  is  not  likely  that 
he  read  much  at  night,  otherwise  he  would 
have  to  read  by  the  light  of  a  feeble  lamp 
flickering  with  the  wind.  His  manuscript 
was  painful  to  read.  The  city  was  filthy, 
the  water  polluted  with  sewage;  pesti- 
lence often  swept  through  the  crowded 
hive. 


'M 


.1 


v> 


\ 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


41 


Mediaeval  students  were  a  rouo-h  set; 
not  less  rough  than  enthusiastic ;  rougher 
than  the  students  of  the  Quartier  Latin  or 
Heidelberg,  their  nearest  counterparts  in 
recent  times.  They  wore  arms,  or  kept 
them  in  their  chambers,  and  they  needed 
them  not  only  in  going  to  and  from  the 
University  over  roads  beset  with  robbers, 
but  in  conflicts  with  the  townspeople,  with 
whom  the  University  was  at  war.  With 
the  townspeople  the  students  had  desperate 
affrays,  ancient  precursors  of  the  compara- 
tively  mild  town  and  gown  rows  of  this 
century.  The  defiant  horns  of  the  town 
were  answered  by  the  bells  of  the  Univer- 
sity. Arrows  flew;  blood  was  shed  on 
both  sides;  Halls  were  stormed  and  de- 


1 

i 


*■ 


m\ 


'  t 


;   i 


i 


Itll 


"It 


i^ 


42 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


fended;  till  Royalty  from  Abingdon  or 
Woodstock  interfered  with  its  men-at-arms, 
seconded  by  the  Bishop  with  bell,  book, 
and  candle.  A  Papal  Legate,  an  Italian 
on  whom  national  feeling  looks  with  jeal- 
ousy, comes  to  Oxford.  Scholars  crowd  to 
see  him.  There  is  a  quarrel  between  them 
and  his  train.  His  cook  flings  a  cauldron 
of  boiling  broth  over  an  Irish  student.  The 
scholars  fly  to  arms.  The  Legate  is  igno- 
miniously  chased  from  Oxford.  Excom- 
munications, royal  thunders,  and  penitential 
performances  follow.  Jews  settle  in  Oxford, 
ply  their  trade  among  the  scholars,  and 
form  a  quarter  with  invidiously  wealthy 
mansions.  There  is  a  royal  edict,  forbid- 
ding them  to  exact  more  than  forty-three 


1!! 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


43 


per  cent  interest  from  the  student.  Wealth 
makes  them  insolent ;  they  assault  a  relig- 
ious procession,  and  with  them  also  the 
students  have  affrays.  Provincial  feeling 
is  strong,  for  the  students  are  divided  into 
two  nations,  the  Northern  and  the  South- 
ern, which  are  always  wrangling,  and  some- 
times fight  pitched  battles  with  bows  and 
arrows.  The  two  Proctors,  now  the  heads 
of  University  police,  were  appointed  as 
tribunes  of  the  two  nations  to  settle  elec- 
tions and  other  matters  between  them 
without  battle.  Amusements  as  well  as 
everything  else  were  rude.  Football  and 
other  rough  games  were  played  at  Beau- 
mont, a  piece  of  ground  to  the  north  of 
the  city;  but  there  was  nothing  like  that 


■■ft 


;1) 

I; 


i^ 


I 


w 


m 

i 


44 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


cricket  field  in  the  parks,  nor  like  the  sen- 
sation now  created  by  the  appearance  of  a 
renowned  cricketer  in  his  paddings  before 
an  admiring  crowd,  to  display  the  fruit  of 
his  many  years  of  assiduous  practice  in 
guarding  his  stumps.  The  Crown  and 
local  lords  had  to  complain  of  a  good  deal 
of  poaching  in  Bagley,  Woodstock,  Shot- 
over,  and  Stowe  Wood. 

To  this  Oxford,  with  its  crowd  of  youth 
thirsting  for  knowledge,  its  turbulence,  its 
vice,  its  danger  from  monkish  encroach- 
ment, came  Walter  de  Merton,  one  of  the 
same  historic  group  as  Grosseteste  and 
Grosseteste's  friend,  Adam  de  Marisco, 
the  man  of  the  hour,  with  the  right  device 


sen- 
of  a 
fore 
it  of 
2  in 
and 
deal 
hot- 


>uth 
,  its 
ich- 
the 
and 

3C0, 

/ice 


tf 


I     1 


II 


)|  : 


m   i 


I /I! 


•[ir|i 


U) 


Hi 


a: 

o 
in 


u 

2 

O 
H 

Oi 


I 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


45 


UJ 

o 

Hi 

o 
o 

2 

o 

H 
Qi 
UJ 


in  his  mind.  Merton  had  been  Chancellor 
of  Henry  III.  amidst  the  political  storms 
of  the  time,  from  which  he  would  gladly 
turn  aside  to  a  work  of  peaceful  improve- 
ment. It  was  thus  that  violence  in  those 
ages  paid  with  its  left  hand  a  tribute  to 
civilisation.  Merton's  foundation  is  the 
first  College,  though  University  and  Bal- 
liol  come  before  it  in  the  Calendar  in 
deference  to  the  priority  of  the  benefac- 
tions out  of  which  those  Colleges  grew. 
Yonder  noble  chapel  in  the  Decorated 
style,  with  its  tower  and  the  old  quad- 
rangle beneath  it,  called,  nobody  knows 
why.  Mob  Quad,  are  the  cradle  of  College 
life.  Merton's  plan  was  an  academical 
brotherhood,   which    combined    monastic 


:A  i 


i 
i 


i 


46 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


order,  discipline,  and  piety  with  the  pur- 
suit of  knowledge.  No  monk  or  friar  was 
ever  to  be  admitted  to  his  House.  The 
members  of  the  House  are  called  in  his 
statutes  by  the  common  name  of  Scholars, 
that  of  Fellows  {Socii),  which  afterwards 
prevailed  here  and  in  all  the  other  Col- 
leges, denoting  their  union  as  an  aca- 
demical household.  They  were  to  live 
like  monks  in  common ;  they  were  to  take 
their  meals  together  in  the  Refectory,  and 
to  study  together  in  the  common  library, 
v/hich  may  still  be  seen,  dark  and  austere, 
with  the  chain  by  which  a  precious  volume 
was  attached  to  the  desk.  They  had  not 
a  common  dormitory,  but  they  must  have 
slept  two  or  three  in  a  room.     Probably 


i 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


47 


'7' 


they  were  confined  to  their  quadrangle, 
except  when  they  were  attending  the 
Schools  of  the  University,  or  allowed  to 
leave  it  only  with  a  companion  as  a  safe- 
guard. They  were  to  elect  their  own 
Warden,  and  fill  up  by  election  vacancies 
in  their  own  number.  The  Warden 
whom  they  had  elected,  they  were  to 
obey.  They  were  to  watch  over  each 
other's  lives,  and  hold  annual  scrutinies 
into  conduct.  The  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury was  to  visit  the  College  and  see 
that  the  rule  was  kept.  But  the  rule  was 
moral  and  academical,  not  cloistral  or 
ascetic.  The  mediaeval  round  of  religious 
services  was  to  be  duly  performed,  and 
prayers  were  to  be  said  for  the  Founder's 


nr 


m 


i 


!■; 


i   i 


48 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


soul.  But  the  main  object  was  not  prayer, 
contemplation,  or  masses  for  souls ;  it  was 
study.  Monks  were  permanently  devoted 
to  their  Order,  shut  up  for  life  in  their 
monastery,  and  secluded  from  the  world. 
The  Scholars  of  Merton  were  destined  to 
serve  the  world,  into  which  they  were  to 
go  forth  when  they  had  completed  the 
course  of  preparation  in  their  College. 
They  were  destined  to  serve  the  world 
as  their  Founder  had  served  it.  In  fact, 
we  find  Wardens  and  Fellows  of  Merton 
employed  by  the  State  and  the  Church  in 
important  missions.  A  Scholar  of  Mer- 
ton, though  he  was  to  obey  the  College 
author!  cies,  took  no  monastic  vow  of  obe- 
dience.     He   took   no  monastic  vow   of 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


49 


poverty;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  antici- 
pated that  he  would  gain  wealth,  of  which 
he  was  exhorted  to  bestow  a  portion  on 
his  College.  He  took  no  monastic  vow 
of  celibacy,  though,  as  one  of  the  clerical 
order,  he  would  of  course  not  be  permitted 
to  marry.  He  was  clerical  as  all  Scholars 
in  those  days  were  clerical,  not  in  the 
modern  and  professional  sense  of  the  term. 
The  allowances  of  the  Fellow  were  only 
his  Commons,  rr  food,  and  his  Livery,  or 
raiment,  and  there  were  to  be  as  many 
Fellows  as  the  estate  could  provide  with 
these.  Instruction  was  received  not  in 
College,  but  in  the  Schools  of  the  Univer- 
sity, to  which  the  Scholars  of  Merton,  like 
the   other   Scholars,  were   to   resort.      A 


B 


1 

;i; 

i 

i 

1 ' 

I 

1 

1  i 

1 
J 

1    IT;!'      t" 

m        ^  1  ' 

1   ^  ■■;'  ' '  ^ 

n    "<^'  'i  '"'■         ' 

W      4^  '>^'   '  ':               ' 

Hj     ji^,  '.^(   ■  ' ' 

W   s  ''! '  'i 

1  II 

|:i    |., 

IT 

>  t. 

i 

1     ■;'     . 

1 

i 

50 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


'•  i 


1  ■^: 


r  > 


P 


1 

III 

■ 

:i       ■  ! 

i 

1 

\'''' 

m 

L. 

sort  of  grammar  school,  for  boys  of  the 
Founder's  kin,  was  attached  to  the  Col- 
lege. But  otherwise  the  work  of  the  Col- 
lege was  study,  not  tuition,  nor  did  the 
statutes  contemplate  the  admission  of  any 
members  except  those  on  the  foundation. 

Merton's  plan,  meeting  the  need  of 
the  hour,  found  acceptance.  His  College 
became  the  pattern  for  others  both  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  University,  Bal- 
liol,  Exeter,  Oriel,  and  Queen's  were  mod- 
elled after  it,  and  monastic  Orders  seem 
to  have  taken  the  hint  in  founding  Houses 
for  their  novices  at  Oxford.  University 
College  grew  out  of  the  benefaction  of 
William  of   Durham,  an  ecclesiastic  who 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


51 


had  studied  at  Paris,  and  left  the  Univer- 
sity a  sum  of  money  for  the  maintenance 
of  students  of  divinity.  The  University 
lodged  them  in  a  Hall  styled  the  Great 
Hall  of  the  University,  which  is  still  the 
proper  corporate  name  of  the  College. 
In  after  days,  this  Hall,  having  grown 
into  a  College,  wished  to  slip  its  neck  out 
of  the  visitorial  yoke  of  the  University, 
and  on  the  strength  of  its  being  the  oldest 
foundation  at  Oxford,  claimed  as  founder 
Alfred,  to  whom  the  foundation  of  the 
University  was  ascribed  by  fable,  asserting 
that  as  a  royal  foundation  it  was  under 
the  visitorship  of  the  Crown.  Courts  of 
law  recognised  the  claim;  a  Hanoverian 
court  of  law  probably  recognised  it  with 


I 

villi 

I 


ill;  V] 


It 


*   1  ! 


!() 


'        ♦£ 


n 


Hi 


Hi 


52 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


pleasure,  as  transferring  power  from  a 
Tory  University  to  the  King;  and  thus 
was  consecrated  a  fiction  in  palliation  of 
which  it  can  only  be  said,  that  the  earliest 
of  our  literary  houses  may  not  improperly 
be  dedicated  to  the  restorer  of  English 
learning.  Oriel  was  founded  by  a  court 
Almoner,  Adam  de  Brome,  who  displayed 
his  courtliness  by  allowing  his  Scholars  to 
speak  French  as  well  as  Latin.  Queen's 
was  founded  by  a  court  Chaplain,  Robert 
Egglesfield,  and  dedicated  to  the  honour 
of  his  royal  miclress.  Queen  Philippa. 
It  was  for  a  Provost  and  twelve  Fellows 
who  were  to  represent  the  number  of 
Christ  and  his  disciples,  to  sit  at  a  table 
as    Egglesfield    had    seen    in    a   picture 


OXFORD   AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


53 


the  Thirteen  sitting  at  the  Last  Supper, 
though  in  crimson  robes.  Egglesfield's 
building  has  been  swept  away  to  make 
room  for  the  Palladian  palace  on  its  site. 
But  his  name  is  kept  in  mind  by  the 
quaint  custom  of  giving,  on  his  day,  a 
needle  {aiguille)  to  each  member  of  the 
foundation,  with  the  injunction,  Take  that 
and  be  thrifty.  Yonder  stone  eagles  too 
on  the  building  recall  it.  Exeter  College 
was  the  work  of  a  political  Bishop  who 
met  his  death  in  a  London  insurrection. 

As  the  fashion  of  founding  Colleges 
grew,  that  of  founding  Monasteries  de- 
creased, and  the  more  as  the  mediaeval 
faith  declined,  and  the  great  change  drew 
near.     That  change  was  heralded  by  the 


1.  J  ■  I 


'■  it  li ; 


111 . 


54 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


appearance  of  Wycliffe,  a  genuine  off- 
spring of  the  University,  for  while  he  was 
the  great  religious  reformer,  he  was  also 
the  great  scholastic  philosopher  of  his 
day.  To  what  College  or  Hall  his  name 
and  fame  belong  is  a  moot  point  among 
antiquaries.  We  would  fain  imagine  him 
in  his  meditations  pacing  the  old  Mob 
Quadrangle  of  Merton.  His  teaching 
took  strong  and  long  hold  of  the  Univer- 
sity. His  reforming  company  of  "poor 
priests  "  drew  with  it  the  spiritual  aspira- 
tion and  energy  of  Oxford  youth.  But  if 
his  movement  has  left  any  traces  in  the 
shape  of  foundations,  it  is  in  the  shape 
of  foundations  produced  by  the  reaction 
against  it,  and  destined  for  its  overthrow. 


le  off- 
iie  was 
LS  also 
of  his 

name 
imong 
lc  him 
I  Mob 
aching 
Jniver- 
"poor 
aspira- 
But  if 
in  the 

shape 
taction 
throw. 


If''' 


-   'i'^i. 

.J.   . 

^tii  III 

I 

'-  *i 

V 

:  I 

\  i  ii 

1 

t 

i'W 


K 


'        ill  f 
1 

; 

^ 

1 

E 

1   1  jj^ 

1 

Hh 

.  "■ 

/ 

■';  ■ 

-i 

:  r^l 

( 

1 

M 

ji 

li      1^ 

[ 

<4i 

lUI 

illl 

i 

ill 

( ilf 

\ 

1 

NEW  COLLEGE,   CLOISTERS  AND   TOWER. 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


55 


Yonder  rises  the  bell  tower  of  New 
College  over  a  famous  group  of  build- 
ings, with  ample  quadrangle,  rich  religious 
chapel,  a  noble  Hall  and  range  of  tranquil 
cloisters,  defaced  only  by  the  addition  of 
a  modern  upper  story  to  the  quadrangle 
and  Vandalic  adaptation  of  the  upper 
windows  to  modern  convenience.  This 
pile  was  the  work  of  William  of  Wyke- 
ham,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  a  typical 
character  of  the  Middle  Ages,  prelate, 
statesman,  and  court  architect  in  one, 
who  negotiated  the  peace  of  Bretigny  and 
built  Windsor  Castle.  The  eye  of  the 
great  architect  as  well  as  of  the  pious 
Founder  must  have  ranged  with  delight 
over  his  fair  creation.      It  is  likely  that 


56 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


!   !| 


t  i! 


New  College,  as  a  foundation  highly  re- 
ligious in  its  character,  was  intended  to 
counteract  WyclifEsm  as  well  as  to  replen- 
ish the  clergy  which  had  been  decimated 
by  the  Black  Death.  Wykeham  was  a 
reformer  in  his  way,  p.nd  one  of  the  party 
headed  by  the  Black  Prince  which  strove 
to  correct  the  abuses  of  the  court  in  the 
dark  decline  of  Edward  III.  But  he  was 
a  conservative,  religious  after  the  ortho- 
dox fashion,  and  devoted  to  the  worship 
of  the  Virgin,  to  whom  his  College  was 
dedicated,  after  whom  it  was  named,  and 
whose  image  surmounts  its  gate.  The 
College  of  St.  Mary  of  Winton  his  foun- 
dation was  entitled.  In  its  day  it  might 
well   be    called    New  College.     New  it 


im 


m 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


57 


was  in  its  scale,  having  seventy  Fellows 
and  Scholars  besides  ten  Chaplains,  three 
Clerks,  and  sixteen  Choristers  for  the  ser- 
vices of  the  Chapel,  which  is  still  famous 
for  its  choir.  New  it  was  in  the  extent 
and  magnificence  of  its  buildings.  New 
it  was  in  the  provision  made  for  solemn 
services  in  its  Chapel,  for  religious  pro- 
cessions round  its  cloisters,  for  the  daily 
orisons  of  all  its  members.  New  it  was 
in  the  state  assigned  to  its  Warden,  who 
was  not  to  be  like  the  Warden  of  Merton, 
only  the  first  among  his  humble  peers, 
living  with  them  at  the  common  board, 
but  to  resemble  more  a  great  Abbot  with 
a  separate  establishment  of  his  own,  keep- 
ing a  sumptuous  hospitality  and  drawn  by 


V' 


1 


mn 


.!    1 


I 


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1 1 


;  [ 


IIP 


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II 


58 


OXFORD   AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


SIX  horses  when  he  went  abroad.  New  it 
was  in  having  undergraduates  as  well  as 
graduates  on  the  foundation,  and  provid- 
ing for  the  training  of  the  youth  during 
the  whole  interval  between  school  and  the 
highest  University  degree.  Even  further 
back  than  the  time  of  admittance  to 
the  University,  stretched  the  care  of  the 
reformer  of  education.  The  most  import- 
ant novelty  of  all,  perhaps,  in  his  creation, 
was  the  connection  between  his  College 
and  the  school  which  he  founded  at  Win- 
chester, his  cathedral  city,  to  feed  his 
College  with  a  constant  supply  of  model 
Scholars.  This  was  the  first  of  those 
great  Public  Schools  which  have  largely 
moulded  the  character  of  the  ruling  class 


.  ^^.v. 


New  it 
well  as 
provid- 
during 
.nd  the 
further 
tice  to 
of  the 
mport- 
eation, 
"ollege 
twin- 
ed his 
model 
those 
argely 
r  class 


I 


11 

i 

!■   1 

■       t 

■l'. 


^!i 


;liin 


I 


NEW  COLLEGE   CHAPEL. 


iir 


'it 


S»    V. 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


O 


9 


in  England.  The  example  was  followed 
by  Henry  VI.  in  connecting  King's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  with  Eton,  and  would 
have  been  followed  by  Wolsey  had  he 
carried  out  his  design  of  connecting  Car- 
dinal College  with  his  school  at  Ipswich. 
From  the  admission  of  an  undergraduate 
element  into  the  College  it  naturally  fol- 
lowed that  there  should  be  instruction 
of  the  juniors  by  the  seniors,  and  super- 
intendence of  study  within  the  College 
walls.  This  was  yet  another  novelty,  and 
Wykeham  seems  to  have  had  an  addi- 
tional motive  for  adopting  it  in  the  low 
condition  of  the  University  Schools,  from 
the  exercises  of  which  attention  had  per- 
haps been  diverted  by  the  religious  move- 


i 

li 


I  ■ 


U, 


60 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


ment.  In  the  careful  provision  for  the 
study  of  Grammatica,  that  is,  the  elements 
of  Latin,  we  perhaps  see  a  gleam  of  the 
Renaissance,  as  the  style  of  the  buildings 
belonging  to  the  last  order  of  mediaeval 
architecture  indicates  that  the  Middle  Age 
was  hastening  to  its  close.  But  it  was  one 
of  Wykeham's  objects  to  strengthen  the 
orthodox  priesthood  in  a  time  of  revolu-  - 
tionary  peril.  Ten  of  his  Fellows  were 
assigned  to  the  study  of  civil,  ten  to  that 
of  canon,  law.  Two  were  permitted  to 
study  medicine.  All  the  rest  were  to  be 
theologians.  The  Founder  was  false  to 
his  own  generous  design  in  giving  a  para- 
mount and  perpetual  preference  in  the 
election  of  Fellows  to  his  own  kin,  who, 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


61 


-  the 
lents 
f  the 
lings 
aeval 
Age 
i  one 
the 

were 
that 
i  to 
)  be 
e  to 
»ara- 
the 
vho, 


being  numerous,  became  at  length  a  fear- 
ful incubus  on  his  institution.  It  is  not 
likely  that  his  own  idea  of  kinship  was 
unlimited,  or  extended  beyond  the  tenth 
degree.  All  the  Fellows  and  Scholars 
were  to  be  poor  and  indigent.  This  was 
in  unison  with  the  mediaeval  spirit  of  alms- 
giving as  well  as  with  the  mediaeval  theory 
of  poverty  as  a  state  spiritually  superior, 
held,  though  not  embodied,  by  wealthy 
prelates.  Study,  not  teaching,  it  is  always 
to  be  remembered,  was  the  principal  duty 
of  those  who  were  to  eat  the  Founder's 
bread. 

The  Statutes  of  New  College  are  elabo- 
rate, and  were  largely   copied  by  other 


1    In*' 

! 

1     •  H   ' 
1      '    !i 

1    1    i 

P        1'' 

1     ll' 

■  J 

1 

i  - 

I. 

1 

m 


I 


62 


OXFORD   AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


founders.  They  present  to  us  a  half- 
monastic  life,  with  the  general  hue  of 
asceticism  which  pervades  everything  me- 
diaeval. Here,  as  in  the  case  of  Merton, 
there  are  no  vows,  but  there  is  strict  dis- 
cipline, with  frugal  fare.  The  Commons, 
or  allowances  for  food,  are  not  to  exceed 
twelve  pence  per  week,  except  in  the  times 
of  dearth.  Once  a  year  there  is  an  allow- 
ance of  cloth  for  a  gown.  There  is  a  chest 
for  loans  to  the  very  needy,  but  there  is  no 
stipend.  The  Warden  rules  with  abbatial 
power,  though  in  greater  matters  he  re- 
quires the  consent  of  the  Fellows,  and  is 
himself  under  the  censorship  of  the  Visitor, 
the  Bishop  of  Winchester,  who,  however, 
rarely  interposed.     Every  year  he  goes  on 


J. 

! 

1 

i- 

'!« 

ii 

i 

1 

1 

.r 

fij 
1 

i 

■     V 

OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


63 


"progress"  to  view  the  College  estates, 
there  being  in  those  days  no  agents,  and 
is  received  by  tenants  with  homage  and 
rural  hospitality.  The  Fellows  and  Schol- 
ars are  lodged  three  or  four  in  a  room,  the 
seniors  as  monitors  to  the  juniors.  Each 
Scholar  undergoes  two  years  of  probation. 
As  in  a  baronial  hall  the  nobles,  so  in  the 
College  Hall  the  seniors,  occupy  the  dais, 
or  high  table,  while  the  juniors  sit  at 
tables  arranged  down  the  Hall.  In  the 
dining-hall  the  Fellows  and  Scholars  sit 
in  silence,  and  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
Bible.  In  speaking  they  must  use  no 
tongue  but  the  Latin.  There  is  to  be  no 
lingering  in  the  Hall  after  dinner,  except 
when  in  winter  a  fire  is  lighted  on  some 


^i 


I. 

II 


r'mi 

I 

1  '  1 

■  1 

64 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


I!' 
I 


church  festival.  Then  it  is  permitted  to 
remain  awhile  and  rehearse  poems,  or  talk 
about  the  chronicles  of  the  kingdom,  the 
wonders  of  the  world,  and  other  things  be- 
fitting clerical  discourse.  This  seems  to 
be  the  principal  concession  made  to  the 
youthful  love  of  amusement.  As  a  rule, 
it  appears  that  the  students  were  confined 
to  the  College  and  its  cloisters  when  they 
were  not  attending  the  Schools  of  the 
University.  They  are  forbidden  to  keep 
hounds  or  hawks,  as  well  as  to  throw  stones 
or  indulge  in  any  rough  or  noisy  sports. 
The  injunctions  against  spilling  wine  and 
slops  in  the  upper  rooms,  or  beer  on  the 
floor  of  the  Hall,  to  the  annoyance  of  those 
who  lodged  beneath,  betoken  a  rough  style 


\i 


i: 


!  1 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


63 


n 


of  living  and  rude  manners.  The  admis- 
sion of  strangers  is  jealously  restricted,  and 
on  no  account  must  a  woman  enter  the 
College,  except  a  laundress,  who  must  be 
of  safe  age.  There  were  daily  prayers  for 
the  Founder's  soul,  daily  masses,  and  fifty 
times  each  day  every  member  of  the  College 
was  to  repeat  the  salutation  to  the  Virgin. 
The  Founder's  obit  was  to  be  celebrated 
with  special  pomp.  Self-love  in  a  me- 
diaeval ascetic  was  not  annihilated  by 
humility,  though  it  took  a  religious  form. 
Thrice  every  year  are  held  scrutinies  into 
life  and  conduct,  at  which  the  hateful 
practice  of  secret  denunciation  is  admitted, 
and  the  accused  is  forbidden  to  call  for  the 
name  of  his  accuser.    Every  cloistered  soci- 


n 

r\ 

1 

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H 

1  1 

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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ety,  whether  monastic  or  academic,  is  pretty 
sure  to  seethe  with  cabals,  suspicions,  and 
slanders.  Leave  of  absence  from  the  Col- 
lege was  by  statute  very  sparingly  allowed, 
and  seldom  could  the  young  Scholar  pay 
what,  in  the  days  before  the  letter  post, 
must  have  been  angel's  visits  to  the  old 
people  on  the  paternal  homestead.  The 
ecclesiastical  and  ascetic  system  of  the 
Middle  Ages  had  little  regard  for  domestic 
affection.  It  treated  the  boy  as  entirely  a 
child  of  the  Church.  In  times  of  pesti- 
lence, then  common,  the  inmates  of  the 
Colleges  usually  went  to  some  farm  or 
grange  belonging  to  the  College  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Oxford,  and  those  were 
probably  pleasant  days   for   the   younger 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


67 


members.  Oaths  of  fearful  length  and 
stringency  were  taken  to  the  observation 
of  the  statutes.  They  proved  sad  traps  for 
conscience  when  the  statutes  had  become 
obsolete,  a  contingency  of  which  the  Found- 
ers, Ignorant  of  progress  and  evolution, 
never  dreamed. 

In  the  interval  between  the  foundation 
of  New  College  and  the  revolution,  re- 
ligious and  intellectual,  which  we  call  the 
Reformation,  were  founded  Lincoln,  All 
Souls*,  Magdalen,  and  Brasenose.  Lin- 
coln, All  Souls',  and  Brasenose  lie  imme- 
diately round  us,  close  to  what  was  the 
centre  of  academical  life.  Magdalen  wc 
recognise  in  the   distance  by   the  most 


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68 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


M 


. 


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beautiful  of  towers.  Lincoln  was  theo- 
logical, and  was  peculiar  in  being  con- 
nected with  two  of  the  Churches  of 
Oxford,  which  its  members  served,  and 
the  tithes  and  oblations  of  which  formed 
its  endowment.  Its  Founder,  Fleming, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  had  as  a  graduate 
resident  at  Oxford  been  noted  for  sym- 
pathy with  the  Wycliffites.  But  when 
he  became  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  fact 
dawned  upon  him  that  the  Scriptures 
too  freely  interpreted  were  dangerous. 
He  went  over  to  the  Reaction,  burned 
Wycliffe's  body,  and  determined  to  found 
a  little  college  of  true  students  in  theol- 
ogy, who  would  "defend  the  mysteries 
of  the  sacred  page   against   those  igno- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


69 


rant  laics  who  profaned  with  swinish 
snouts  its  most  holy  pearls."  His  suc- 
cessor, Bishop  Rotherham,  being  of  the 
same  mind,  carried  forward  the  work, 
and  gave  the  College  statutes  enjoining 
the  expulsion  of  any  Fellow  convicted  of 
favouring  in  public  or  in  private  hereti- 
cal tenets,  and  in  particular  the  tenets 
of  "that  heretical  sect  lately  sprung  up 
which  assails  the  sacraments,  diverse 
orders  and  dignities,  and  properties  of 
the  Church."  Rotherham  had  evidently 
a  keen  and  just  sense  of  the  fact,  that 
with  the  talismanic  sacraments  of  the 
Church  were  bound  up  its  dignity  and 
wealth.  The  two  orthodox  prelates  would 
have  stood  aghast  if  they  could  have  lore- 


|l 


I  -: 


70 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


I  ! 


seen  that  their  little  College  of  true  theo- 
logians would  one  day  number  among  its 
Fellows  John  Wesley,  and  that  Method- 
ism would  be  cradled  within  its  walls. 
They  would  not  less  have  stood  aghast 
if  they  could  have  foreseen  that  such  a 
chief  of  Liberals  as  Mark  Pattison,  would 
one  day  be  its  Rector.  The  history  of 
these  foundations  is  full  of  lessons  for 
benefactors  who  fancy  that  they  can  im- 
press their  will  upon  posterity. 

All  Souls*  was  designed  by  its  Founder, 
Archbishop  Chicheley,  ad  orandum  as 
well  as  ad  studendum;  it  was  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  a  chantry  not  less  than 
of  a  College.  The  sculptured  group  of 
souls  over  the  gateway  in   High   Street 


■f  -i. 


•Pf 


r^ 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


71 


denotes  that  the  Warden  and  Fellows 
were  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  all  Chris- 
tian people.  But  particularly  were  they 
to  pray  for  the  souls  of  "the  illustrious 
Prince  Henry,  late  King  of  England,  of 
Thomas,  Duke  of  Clarence,  and  of  all 
the  Dukes,  Earls,  Barons,  Knights,  Es- 
quires, and  others  who  fell  in  the  war 
for  the  Crown  of  France."  Of  that 
unhappy  war  Chicheley  had  been  the 
adviser;  and  seeing  the  wreck  which  his 
folly,  or,  if  the  suspicion  immortalised 
by  Shakespeare  is  true,  his  selfish  policy, 
as  the  head  of  a  bloated  Establishment 
threatened  with  depletion,  had  wrought, 
he  may  well  have  felt  the  sting  of  con- 
science in  his  old  age.     The  figures  in 


iil:,t 


J 


72 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


the  new  reredos  of  the  Chapel  tell  the 
story  of  the  foundation. 


LAI 


Magdalen  was  the  work  of  Waynflete, 
Bishop  of  Winchester  and  Chancellor  of 
Henry  VI.,  another  statesman-prelate  who 
turned  from  the  political  storm  to  found 
a  house  of  learning.  Of  all  the  houses 
of  learning  in  England,  perhaps  of  any 
country,  that  which  Waynflete  founded  is 
the  loveliest,  as  he  will  say  who  stands 
in  its  cloistered  and  ivy-mantlea  quad- 
rangle, either  beneath  the  light  of  the 
summer's  sun  or  that  of  the  winter's 
moon.  Some  American  architect,  capti- 
vated by  the  graces  of  Magdalen,  has 
reproduced  them  in  his  plan  for  a  new 


T 


the 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


73 


'i' 


University  in  California.  Those  courts, 
when  newly  built,  were  darkened  by 
the  presence  of  Richard  III.  Waynflete 
came  to  Oxford  to  receive  the  king;  and 
this  homage,  paid  by  a  saintly  man,  seems 
to  show  that  in  those  fierce  times  of  dynas- 
tic change,  Richard,  before  the  murder  of 
his  nephews,  was  not  regarded  as  a  crimi- 
nal usurper,  perhaps  not  as  a  usurper  at 
all.  The  tyrant  was  intellectual.  In  him, 
as  still  more  notably  in  Tiptoft,  Earl  of 
Worcester,  nicknamed  for  his  cruelty  the 
Butcher,  but  literary  and  a  benefactor  to 
the  University,  was  something  like  an 
English  counterpart  of  the  mixture  in 
the  Italian  Renaissance  of  culture  with 
licentiousness  and  crime.    But  as  he  sat 


i   I 


III 

i 


51 


w9  t-i^ 


Hi  '«^ 


74 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


beside  Waynflete  in  the  Hall  wooing  pop- 
ularity by  apparent  attention  to  the  exer- 
cises, Richard's  thoughts  probably  were 
far  away.  A  red  rose  among  the  archi- 
tectural ornaments  is  found  to  have  been 
afterwards  painted  white.  It  changed,  no 
doubt,  with  fortune,  when  she  left  the  red 
for  the  white  rose.  A  new  relation  be- 
tween College  and  University  is  inaugu- 
rated by  the  institution  at  Magdalen  of 
three  Readers  to  lecture  to  the  Univer- 
sity at  large. 


ft 


The  old  quadrangle  of  Brasenose  re- 
mains much  as  it  was  left  by  its  co- 
founders,  a  munificent  Bishop  and  a 
pious  Knight.     It  is  of   no   special  his- 


■If  I 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


75 


tone  interest,  and  its  importance  belongs 
to  later  times.  It  absorbed  several  Halls, 
the  sign  of  one  of  which  was  probably 
the  brazen  nose  which  now  adorns  its 
gate,  and  so  far  it  marks  an  epoch. 


T 


The  quiet  and  sombre  old  quadrangle 
of  Corpus  Christi  lies  yonder,  by  the  side 
of  Merton,  much  as  its  Founder  left  it. 
Now  we  have  come  to  the  real  dawn  of 
the  English  Renaissance,  a  gray  dawn 
which  never  became  a  very  bright  day; 
for  in  England,  as  in  Germany  and  other 
Teutonic  countries,  reawakened  and  eman- 
cipated intellect  turned  to  the  pursuit  of 
truth  rather  than  of  beauty,  and  the  great 
movement  was  less  a  birth  of  literature 


i 
% 

'A 


Ml 


i'  ill  « ■■ 


s 


J 


1:' 

if 

'V- 


I 


} 


'     I 
I 


76 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


and  of  art  than  of  reformation  in  religion. 
This  is  the  age  of  Grocyn,  the  teacher 
of  Greek ;  of  Linacre,  the  English  Hippoc- 
rates ;  of  Colet,  the  regenerator  of  educa- 
tion; of  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  carried 
culture  to  the  Chancellorship  of  the  realm, 
and  whose  "  Utopia  "  proclaims  the  growth 
of  fresh  aspirations  and  the  opening  of  a 
new  era  in  one  way,  as  Rabelais  did  in 
another.  Duke  Humphrey  of  Gloucester, 
uncle  of  Henry  VI.,  had  perhaps  opened 
the  epoch  at  Oxford  by  his  princely  gift 
of  books,  in  which  the  Renaissance  litera- 
ture was  strongly  represented,  and  which 
was  the  germ  of  the  University  Library. 
Soon  Erasmus  will  visit  Oxford  and  chant 
in  elegant  Latin  the  praises  of  the  classi- 


■  s< 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


77 


cal  and  cultured  circle  which  he  finds 
there.  Now  rages  the  war  between  the 
humanists  of  the  new  classical  learning, 
called  the  Greeks,  and  its  opponents, 
the  Trojans,  who  desired  to  walk  in  the 
ancient  paths,  and  who,  though  bigoted 
and  grotesque,  were,  after  all,  not  far 
wrong  in  identifying  heresy  with  Greek, 
since  the  study  of  the  New  Testament  in 
the  original  was  subversive  of  the  medi- 
aeval faith.  Again,  as  in  the  cases  of 
Merton,  Wykeham,  and  Waynflete,  a 
statesman-prelate  turns  in  old  age  from  the 
distractions  of  State  to  found  a  house  of 
learning.  Foxe,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
was  the  chief  counsellor  and  diplomatist  of 
Henry  VII.,  in  whose  service  he  had  no 


H 


78 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


li 


II: 


ill 


^  'It 
fit 


m 


'■J 


II.  m 

3,. 


f  ■;  ■ 


r    ► ! 

h  ■ 


doubt  passed  anxious  hours  and  trodden 
dark  paths.  It  may  have  been  partly  for 
the  good  of  his  soul  that  he  proposed  to 
found  a  house  in  Oxford  for  the  reception 
of  young  monks  from  St.  Swithin's  Priory 
in  Winchester  while  studying  in  Oxford. 
He  was  diverted  from  that  design,  and 
persuaded  to  found  a  College  instead,  by 
his  friend  Hugh  Oldham,  Bishop  of  Exe- 
ter, who  is  represented  as  saying,  "  What, 
my  Lord,  shall  we  build  houses  and  pro- 
vide livelihoods  for  a  company  of  bussing 
monks  whose  end  and  fall  we  ourselves 
may  live  to  see?  No,  no.  It  is  more 
meet,  a  great  deal,  that  we  should  have 
care  to  provide  for  the  increase  of  learning 
and  for  such  as  by  their  learning  shall  do 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


79 


good  in  the  Church  and  Commonwealth." 
Supposing  the  prognostication  embodied 
in  these  words  genuine,  they  show  that  to 
an  enlightened  Bishop  the  dissolution  of 
the  Monasteries  seemed  inevitable.  The 
statutes  of  Foxe's  College  are  written  in  a 
style  which  affects  the  highest  classical 
elegance.  They  elaborate  throughout  the 
metaphor  of  a  bee-hive  with  its  industrious 
insects  and  its  store  of  intellectual  honey. 
They  embody  the  hopes  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  depict  a  College  of  the  Human- 
ities. There  is  to  be  a  Reader  in  Greek, 
and  for  the  subjects  of  his  lectures  a  long 
list  of  great  Greek  authors  is  assigned. 
There  is  to  be  a  Reader  of  Latin,  for 
whose  lectures  a  similar  list  of  Latin  au- 


V 


^rt 


80 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


t'  \ 


'.I 


'  " 

'i:'^' 


thors  IS  given,  and  who  is  to  keep  "  bar- 
barism," that  mortal  sin  in  the  eyes  of  a 
devotee  of  the  Renaissance,  out  of  the 
hive.  Theology  is  not  forgotten.  The 
Founder  pays  a  due,  possibly  somewhat 
conventional,  tribute  to  its  surpassing 
importance.  Of  this,  also,  there  is  a 
Professor,  but  its  guides  in  interpreting 
Scripture  are  not  to  be  the  mediaeval  text- 
books, such  as  Aquinas  and  the  Master  of 
the  Sentences,  but  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Fathers,  including  the  daring  Origen  and 
Augustine  the  favourite  of  Luther,  The 
Readers  are  to  lecture  not  to  the  College 
only,  but  to  the  University  at  large,  a  new 
provision,  connecting  the  College  with  the 
University,  which  hardly  took  effect  till 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


81 


very  recent  times.  One  of  the  first  Read- 
ers was  the  learned  Spaniard,  Juan  Luis 
Vives,  whose  appointment  bespoke  the 
cosmopolitan  character  of  the  humanist 
republic  of  letters.  The  statutes  were 
signed  by  the  Founder  with  a  trembling 
hand  eight  months  before  his  death,  so 
that  only  in  imagination  did  he  see  his 
literary  bees  at  work. 

Yonder  to  the  south  is  Tom  Tower, 
where  hangs  the  great  bell,  which,  "  swing- 
ing slow  with  sullen  roar,"  was  heard  by 
Milton  at  Forest  Hill  It  was  tolled  a 
hundred  and  one  times  for  the  hundred 
and  one  students  of  Wolsey's  House. 
The  Tower,  or  Cupola,  was  the  work,  not 


H 


11 


lltL' 


h 


82 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


I 


1!     'i 
r 


1  f '« 


I 

I   : 
.J 


.M 


:!- 


of  Wolsey  but  of  Wren.  Around  the 
great  quadrangle  over  which  it  rises  are 
seen  the  lines  for  cloisters  which  were 
never  built.  The  balustrade  on  the  top 
of  the  quadrangle  is  an  alien  work  of 
modern  times.  The  Church  of  St.  Fry- 
deswide's  Monastery  does  duty  as  the 
College  Chapel,  in  place  of  the  grand 
Chapel  in  the  perpendicular  style,  which, 
had  the  Founder's  plan  taken  effect,  would 
have  stood  there.  Moreover,  that  which 
should  have  been  wholly  a  College  is 
made  to  serve  and  to  expend  a  par*-  of 
its  power  as  the  Chapter  of  the  Diocese 
of  Oxford,  lending  its  Chapel  as  the 
Cathedral,  a  niggardly  arrangement  which 
has  been  productive  of  strained  relations 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


83 


between  occupants  of  the  See  and  Heads 
of  the  College.     Ample  and  noble  are  the 
courts   of  Wolsey.      Worthy  of  his  mag- 
nificence is   the   great    Hall,   the    finest 
room,  barring  Westminster  Hall,  in  Eng- 
land, and  filled   with   those  portraits   of 
Alumni,  which,  notwithstanding  the  fre- 
quency of  pudding  sleeves,  form  the  fairest 
tapestry  with  which  hall  was  ever  hung. 
But  it  all  falls  short  of  Wolsey's  concep- 
tion.    Had  Wolsey's  conception  been  ful- 
filled, Ipswich  would  have  been  a  nursery 
of  scholars  for  Cardinal  College,  as  Win- 
chester was  for  New  College,  and  Eton 
for  King's  College,  Cambridge.     The  Car- 
dinal was  an  English  Leo  X.  in  morals, 
tastes,  perhaps  in  beliefs;  a  true  Prince, 


I 
1 


iU      'I 


84 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


not  of  the  Church  but  of  the  Renaissance. 
For  him,  perhaps,  as  for  Foxe,  it  was  a 
refreshment  to  turn  from  public  life,  full, 
as  it  must  have  been,  of  care  and  peril  for 
the  Vizier  of  a  headstrong  and  capricious 
despot,  to  the  calm  happiness  of  seeing 
his  great  College  rise,  and  gathering  into 
it  the  foremost  of  teachers  and  the  flower 
of  students.  But  in  the  midst  of  his 
enterprise  the  sky  of  the  Renaissance 
became  overcast  with  clouds,  and  the 
storm  of  religious  revolution,  which  had 
long  been  gathering,  broke.  Forewarn- 
ings  of  the  storm  Wolsey  had  received,  for 
he  had  found  that  in  opening  his  gates 
to  the  highest  intellectual  activity  he  had 
opened  them  to  free  inquiry  and  to  hetero- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


85 


doxy.  Himself,  too,  had  set  the  example 
of  suppressing  monasteries,  though  he  did 
this  not  for  mere  rapine  or  to  gorge  his 
parasites,  but  to  turn  useless  and  abused 
endowments  to  a  noble  use.  Wolsey  all 
but  drew  his  foundation  down  with  him 
in  his  fall.  The  tyrant  and  his  minions 
were  builders  of  nothing  but  ruin.  Christ 
Church,  as  at  last  it  was  called,  was  threat- 
ened with  confiscation  and  destruction, 
but  was  finally  spared  in  its  incomplete 
condition,  appropriated  by  Henry  as  his 
own  foundation,  and  dedicated  to  the 
honour  of  the  king,  whose  portrait,  in 
its  usual  attitude  of  obtrusive  self-conceit, 
occupies  in  the  Hall  the  central  place, 
where  the  portrait  of  the  Cardinal  should 


( t. 


i 


1  'I 


l\ 


J 


Ih 


m 


M 


if  ^1  <8 


iff 


86 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


be.  The  Cardinal's  hat,  on  the  outer  wall 
of  the  house,  is  left  to  speak  of  the  true 
Founder.  That  the  College  was  to  be 
called  after  its  Founder's  name,  not,  like 
the  Colleges  of  Wykeham  and  Waynflete, 
after  the  name  of  a  Saint,  seems  a  symp- 
tom of  the  pride  which  went  before 
Wolsey's  fall. 

Now  come  upon  the  hapless  University 
forty  years  of  religious  revolution,  the 
monuments  of  which  are  traces  of  de- 
struction and  records  of  proscription.  All 
the  monastic  houses  and  houses  for  mon- 
astic novices  were  forfeited  to  the  Crown, 
and  their  buildings  were  left  desolate, 
though,  from  the  ruins  of  some  of  them, 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


87 


new  Colleges  were  afterwards  to  rise. 
Libraries  which  would  now  be  priceless, 
were  sacked  and  destroyed  because  the 
illumination  on  the  manuscripts  was  Pop- 
ish. It  was  the  least  to  be  deplored  of 
all  the  havoc,  that  the  torn  leaves  of  the 
arid  tomes  of  Duns  Scotus  were  seen 
flying  about  the  quadrangle  of  New  Col- 
lege, while  a  sporting  gentleman  of  the 
neighbourhood  was  picking  them  up  to 
be  used  in  driving  the  deer.  There  is  a 
comic  monument  of  the  religious  revolu- 
tion in  the  coffer  shrine  at  Christ  Church, 
in  which  the  dust  of  Catherine,  wife  of 
the  Protestant  Doctor,  Peter  Martyr,  is 
mingled  with  that  of  the  Catholic  Saint, 
Frydeswide.     Catholicism,  in  its  hour  of 


11  ' 


!     I  't 


88 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


t 


i 


li 


f-'- 


■  1 


I 


t 


'I'  ^l:« 


11- 


I? 


I 


:i^r- 


triumph  under  Mary,  had  dug  up  the 
corpse  of  the  heretic's  concubine  and 
buried  it  under  a  dung-hill.  Protestant- 
ism, once  more  victorious,  rescued  the 
remains,  and  guarded  against  a  repetition 
of  the  outrage,  in  case  fortune  should 
again  change,  by  mingling  them  with 
those  of  the  Catholic  Saint.  A  more 
tragic  memorial  of  the  conflict  is  yonder 
recumbent  cross  in  Broad  Street,  close 
to  the  spot,  then  a  portion  of  the  town 
ditch,  where  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and  Rid- 
ley died.  Bocardo,  the  prison  over  the 
neighbouring  gate  of  the  city,  from  the 
window  of  which  Cranmer,  then  confined 
there,  witnessed  the  burning  of  Latimer 
and  Ridley,  was  pulled  down  at  the  begin- 


I* 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


89 


ning  of  this  century.  The  Divinity 
School,  Christ  Church  Cathedral,  and 
St.  Mary's  Church  witnessed  different 
scenes  of  the  drama.  St.  Mary's  wit- 
nessed that  last  scene,  in  which  Cranmer 
filled  his  enemies  with  fury  and  confusion 
by  suddenly  recanting  his  recantation, 
and  declaring  that  the  hand  which  had 
signed  it  should  burn  first.  College  ar- 
chives record  the  expulsion,  readmission, 
and  re-expulsion  of  Heads  and  Fellows, 
as  victory  inclined  to  the  Protestant  or 
Catholic  side.  So  perished  the  English 
Renaissance.  For  the  cultivation  of  the 
humanities  there  could  be  no  room  in  a 
centre  of  religious  strife. 


'■r 


«  ; 


i 


fi-1 


(    :'l 


\Bn. 


90 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


Ill 


Fatal  bequests  of  the  religious  war  were 
the  religious  tests.  Leicester,  as  Chancel- 
lor, introduced  subscription  to  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  to  keep  out  Romanists; 
King  James,  that  to  the  three  articles  of 
the  Thirty-sixth  Canon  to  keep  out  Puri- 
tans. These  tests,  involving  scores  of 
controverted  propositions  in  theology, 
were  imposed  on  the  consciences  of  mere 
boys.  The  Universities  were  thus  taken 
from  the  nation  and  given  to  the  State 
Church,  which,  in  the  course  of  time,  as  dis- 
sent from  its  doctrines  gained  ground,  came 
to  be  far  from  identical  with  the  nation. 


j'^S 


mm 


f  ii 


In  the  first  lull,  however,  new  Colleges 
arose,  partly  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  monas- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


91 


tic  houses  of  the  past.  Trinity  College, 
of  which  the  quiet  old  qua ri '-angle  is  curi- 
ously mated  with  a  fantastic  Chapel  of 
much  later  date,  was  founded  out  of  the 
ruin  of  Durham  College,  a  Benedictine 
House.  Its  Founder,  Sir  Thomas  Pope, 
was  one  of  that  group  of  highly  educated 
lay  statesmen,  eminent  both  in  the  coun- 
cils of  kings  and  among  the  patrons  of 
learning,  which  succeeded  the  great  Prel- 
ates of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  was  a 
Catholic,  as  his  statutes  show;  but  a  lib- 
eral Catholic,  not  unfriendly  to  light, 
though  little  knowing  perhaps  whither  it 
would  lead  him.  Among  his  friends  was 
Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  who  bequeathed  to 
him  the  splendid  whistle,  then  used  to  call 


92 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


?  ■'-' 


r 

a  •■■''  ■ 


IV' 


.  ;■'! 


■it  \l   ' 

m 


tiff 


servants,  which  is  seen  round  his  neck  in 
his  portrait.  Another  of  his  friends  was 
Pole,  who  showed  his  intellectual  liberality 
by  recommending  him  to  enjoin  in  his 
statutes  the  study  of  Greek.  St.  John's 
College,  again,  rose  out  of  the  wreck  of 
a  Bernardine  House.  The  Founder  was 
not  a  statesman  or  a  prelate,  but  a  great 
citizen,  Sir  Thomas  White,  sometime 
Lord  Mayor  of  London,  who  had  amassed 
wealth  in  trade,  and  made  a  noble  use  of 
it.  White  also  was  of  the  olden  faith. 
That  the  storm  was  not  over  when  his 
College  was  founded  is  tragically  shown 
by  the  fate  of  Campion,  who,  when  White 
was  laid  in  the  College  Chapel,  preached 
the  funeral  sermon,  and  afterwards  becom- 


i'l 


.1 


i 


k-i 


«1 


m 


i:     ^li' 


I  .* 


1^    1 


1 1 


.i 


H 
2 

O 

2 
U 
Q 

< 


o 

Ui 

o 
o 

w 

2 

I. 

o 


C/1 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


93 


H 
2 

O 

fi. 
Z 

u 

Q 

< 
O 


o 

Ui 

o 
o 

2 

X. 

o 


C/3 


ing  a  Jesuit  and  an  emissary  of  his  Order, 
was  brought  to  the  rack  and  to  the  scaf- 
fold. There  was  also  a  great  secession  of 
Fellows  when  the  final  rupture  took  place 
between  Rome  and  Elizabeth.  In  the 
group  of  cultivated  Knights  and  states- 
men, who  patronised  learning  and  educa- 
tion, may  be  placed  Sir  William  Petre,  the 
second  Founder  of  Exeter  College,  whose 
monument  is  its  old  quadrangle,  and  Sir 
Thomas  Bodley,  whose  monument  is  the 
Bodleian  Library.  If  Petre  and  Bodley 
were  Protestants,  while  Pope  and  White 
were  Catholics,  the  difference  was  rather 
political  than  religious.  In  religion  the 
public  men  changed  with  the  national 
government,  little  sharing  the  passions  of 
either  theological  party. 


94 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


m 


Mi 
k 


Jesus,  whose  old  quadrangle,  chapel, 
and  hall  belong  to  early  Stuart  times,  was 
the  first  distinctly  Protestant  College. 
This  its  name,  in  contrast  with  Colleges 
named  after  Saints,  denotes.  The  second 
Protestant  College  was  Wadham,  the 
buildings  of  which  stand  in  their  pristine 
beauty,  vying  with  Magdalen,  perhaps 
even  excelling  it  in  the  special  air  of  a 
house  of  learning,  and  proving  that  to 
be  interesting  and  impressive  it  is  not 
necessary  to  be  mediaeval.  At  the  same 
time  Wadham  shows  how  long  the  spirit 
of  the  Middle  Ages  clung  to  Oxford; 
for  the  style  of  the  Chapel  is  anterior 
by  a  century  and  a  half  to  the  date. 
Here  we  have  a  conscious  desire,  on  the 


1^ 
■, 


V 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


95 


i 


\ 


part  of  the  architect,  to  recall  the  past. 
The  Founder,  Sir  Nicholas  Wadham,  was 
a  wealthy  Western  land-owner.  We  may 
dismiss  the  tradition  that  his  first  design 
was  to  found  a  College  of  Roman  Catho- 
lic priests  in  Italy,  and  his  second  to 
found  a  Protestant  College  at  Oxford,  as 
at  most  significant  of  the  prolonged  wav- 
ering of  the  religious  balance  in  the  minds 
of  a  number  of  the  wealthier  class.  The 
statutes  were,  in  the  main,  like  those  of 
the  mediaeval  Colleges,  saving  in  making 
the  Fellowship  terminable  after  about 
twenty-two  years,  thus  more  clearly  desig- 
nating the  College  as  a  school  for  active 
life.  The  prohibition  of  marriage  was 
retained,  not  as  an  ascetic  ordinance,  but 


96 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


i! 


'P    ' 
'J  *' 


!     I 


Ik 
I 


il5 


11 


:i 


'1 
1 


1  ) 


^      > 


t' 


/' 


as  a  concomitant  of  the  College  system. 
In  the  mediaeval  Colleges  it  was  not 
necessary  to  extend  the  prohibition  to  the 
Heads,  who,  being  priests,  were  bound 
to  celibacy  by  the  regulations  of  their 
Order;  but  marriage  being  now  per- 
mitted to  the  clergy  generally,  the  pro- 
hibition was  in  the  statutes  of  Wadham 
expressly  extended,  in  the  interest  of  the 
College  system,  to  the  Head.  Hence  it 
is  an  aspersion  on  the  reputation  of 
Dame  Dorothy  Wadham,  who,  after  her 
husband's  death,  carried  out  his  design, 
and  whose  effigy  kneels  opposite  that  of 
her  loving  lord  in  the  old  quadrangle,  to 
say  that  she  was  in  love  with  the  first 
Warden,  and  because  he  would  not  marry 


<t 


i 


n 


V']^  .\ 


M .;  i  ■ 


H 

Z 

o 

z 

Hi 
Q 

< 
O 

I 

o 

-1 

o 
o 

< 

X 
Q 
< 


w.n 


r-: 

kiv^ 

l;:i  ■; 

'::''[ 

1. 

OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


97 


her,  forbade  him  by  statute  to  marry  any 
other  woman. 


H 
2 
O 

a: 

(JU 

2 
(jU 
Q 
OC 
< 
O 

I 
lU 

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u 

< 

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o 

< 


These  foundations,  followed  by  that  of 
Pembroke  and  the  building  of  the  South 
quadrangle  of  Merton,  of  the  South  quad- 
rangle of  Lincoln,  of  the  West  front  of  St. 
John's,  of  the  quadrangle  and  hall  of  Exe- 
ter, of  part  of  the  quadrangle  of  Oriel,  of 
the  West  quadrangle  of  University  Col- 
lege, as  well  as  of  the  Bodleian  Library, 
the  Schools'  quadrangle,  the  Convocation 
House,  and  of  the  gateway  of  the  Botanic 
Garden,  prove  that,  though  the  old  Uni- 
versity system,  with  its  scholastic  exercises, 
had  become  hollow,  there  was  life  in  Ox- 
ford, and  the  interest  of  patrons  of  learn- 


T 


i'T'l 


!  f 


If 


i 


i: 


^n 


I: 


w 


k 


"kp-'^  ii 


98 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ing  was  attracted  to  it  during  the  period 
between  the  Reformation  and  the  Rebel- 
lion. It  was  also  felt  to  be  a  centre  of 
power.  Elizabeth  twice  visited  it,  once 
in  the  heyday  of  her  youthful  glory,  and 
again  in  her  haggard  decline.  On  the 
first  occasion  she  exerted  with  effect  those 
arts  of  popularity  which  were  the  best  part 
of  her  statesmanship.  On  both  occasions 
she  was  received  with  ecstatic  flattery  and 
entertained  with  academical  exercises  at 
tedious  length,  and  plays,  to  our  taste  not 
less  tedious,  performed  in  College  Halls. 
Her  successor  could  not  fail  to  exhibit 
himself  in  a  seat  of  learning,  where  he 
felt  supreme,  and,  to  do  him  justice,  was 
not  unqualified,  to  shine.    To  his  benig- 


\ 


\ 


Q 


1    !« 

iril 


<? 


■? 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


99 


> 


' 


nity  the  University  owes  the  questionable 
privilege  of  sending  two  members  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  whereby  it  became 
entangled  in  political  as  well  as  in  theo- 
logical frays. 

Great  changes,  however,  had  by  this 
time  passed  or  were  passing  over  the  Uni- 
versity. As  in  former  days  the  Halls  had 
absorbed  llie  Chamberdekyns,  so  the  Col- 
leges had  now  almost  absorbed  the  Halls. 
They  did  this,  not  by  any  aggression,  but 
by  the  natural  advantages  of  wealth,  their 
riches  always  increasing  with  the  value  of 
land,  and  by  their  reputation.  Most  of 
them,  in  addition  to  the  members  on  the 
foundation,  took  students  as  boarders,  and 


<  ii 


« , 


•')' 

I 


!i 


;;  ij 


100 


OXFORD  AlTD  HER  COLLEGES. 


:t( 


they  got  the  best  and  wealthiest.  Uni- 
versities, losing  their  pristine  character  as 
marts  of  available  knowledge,  and  becom- 
ing places  of  general  education,  ceaised,  by 
a  process  equally  natural,  to  be  the  heri- 
tage of  the  poor  and  became  the  resort  of 
the  rich.  The  mediaeval  statutes  of  the 
Colleges  still  limited  the  foundations  to 
the  poor,  but  even  these  in  time,  by  cun- 
ning interpretation,  were  largely  evaded. 
Already  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  Oxford 
had  received,  and,  it  seems,  too  compla- 
cently received,  young  scions  of  the  aris- 
tocracy and  gentry,  the  precursors  of  the 
noblemen  and  the  silk-gowned  gentleman- 
commoners  of  a  later  day.  The  Black 
Prince    had    been    for  a   short    time    at 


)i 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES.  101 

Queen's  College.     In  the  reign  of  Henry 
VI.,  George  Neville,  the  brother  of  the 
King-maker,  had  celebrated  the  taking  of 
his  degree,  a  process  which  was  probably 
made  easy  to  him,  with  banquets  which 
lasted  through  two  days  on  a  prodigious 
scale.     At  the  same  time  and  for  the  same 
causes  the  system  of  College  instruction 
grew  in  importance  and  gradually  ousted 
the    lectures    of    University    Professors. 
Fellows   of  Colleges   were   not   unwilling 
to  add  to  their  Commons  and  Livery  the 
Tutor's  stipend.     Thus  the  importance  of 
the  College  waxed  while  that  of  the  Uni- 
versity  waned,  and   the  College   Statutes 
became   more  and   more   collectively  the 
law  of   the    University.     These   Statutes 


f 


102 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


iiiii 


rBil  ■? 


were  mediaeval  and  obsolete,  but  they  were 
unalterable,  the  Heads  and  Fellows  being 
sworn  to  their  observance,  and  there  being 
no  power  of  amendment,  since  the  Visitor 
could  only  interpret  and  enforce.  Thus 
the  mediaeval  type  of  life  and  study  was 
stereotyped  and  progress  was  barred.  The 
Fellowships  having  been  originally  not 
teacherships  or  prizes,  but  aids  to  poor 
students,  the  Founders  deemed  themselves 
at  liberty  in  regulating  the  elections  to 
give  free  play  to  their  local  and  family 
partialities,  and  the  consequence  was  a 
mass  of  preferences  to  favoured  counties 
or  to  kin.  With  all  these  limitations,  the 
teaching  body  of  the  University  war  now 
practically  saddled.     Even  the  restrictions 


■i.S 


i. 


I 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


103 


I 


to  particular  schools  —  as  to  Winchester 
in  the  case  of  New  College,  to  West- 
minster, which  had  been  substituted  for 
Wolsey's  Ipswich,  in  the  case  of  Christ 
Church,  and  to  Merchant  Tailors'  School 
in  the  case  of  St.  John's  —  were  noxious, 
though  in  a  less  degree,  albeit  their  bad 
influence  might  be  redeemed  by  some 
pleasant  associations.  Worst  of  all,  how- 
ever, in  their  effect  were  the  restrictions 
to  the  clerical  Order.  This  meant  little 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  all  intellectual 
callings  were  clerical,  when  at  Oxford 
gownsman  and  clerk,  townsman  and  laic, 
were  convertible  terms.  Wykeham,  Foxe, 
and  Wolsey  themselves  were  thorough 
laymen  in   their  pursuits   and  character. 


.  .'tWI 


m 


<  i  •' 


u 


104 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


though  they  had  received  the  tonsure, 
were  qualified,  if  they  pleased,  to  celebrate 
mass,  and  derived  their  incomes  from  bish- 
oprics and  abbeys.  But  the  Reformation 
drew  a  sharp  ^'ne  between  the  clerical  and 
the  other  profe^^jions.  The  clergyman  was 
henceforth  a  pastor.  The  resident  body 
of  graduates  and  the  teaching  staff  of  Ox- 
ford belonging  almost  exclusively  to  the 
clerical  profession,  the  studies  and  inter- 
ests of  that  profession  now  reigned  alone. 
Whatever  life  remained  to  the  University 
was  chiefly  absorbed  in  theological  study 
and  controversy.  This  was  the  more  de- 
plorable as  theology,  in  the  mediaeval 
sense,  was  a  science  almost  as  extinct  as 
astrology  or  alchemy.    Oxford  was  turned 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


105 


into  the  cock-pit  of  theological  party.  At 
the  same  time  she  was  bound  hand  and 
foot  to  a  political  faction,  because  her 
clergymen  belonged  to  the  Episcopal  and 
State  Church,  the  patrons  and  upholders 
of  which,  from  political  motives,  were  the 
Kings  and  the  Cavaliers,  or,  as  they  were 
afterwards  called,  the  Tories.  Cambridge 
suffered  like  Oxford,  though  with  some 
abatement,  because  there,  owing  to  the 
vicinity  of  a  great  Puritan  district,  high 
Anglicanism  did  not  prevail,  and,  for 
reasons  difficult  to  define,  the  clergy  alto- 
gether were  less  clerical.  Newton  was 
near  forfeiting  his  Fellowship  and  the 
means  of  prosecuting  his  speculations  be- 
cause he  was  not  in  Holy  Orders.     Luck- 


106 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


''■I  '4 


;  (•■. 


I   I  .'■ 


ily,  a  Lay  Fellowship  fell  just  in  time. 
Let  Founders,  and  all  who  have  a  passion 
for  regulating  the  lives  of  other  people, 
for  propagating  their  wills  beyond  the 
reach  of  their  foresight,  and  for  grasping 
posterity,  as  it  were,  with  a  dead  hand, 
take  warning  by  a  disastrous  example. 

As  the  Colleges  became  the  University, 
their  Heads  became  the  governors  of  the 
University.  They  formed  a  Board  called 
the  Hebdomadal  Council,  which  initiated 
all  legislation,  while  the  executive  was  the 
Vice-Chancellorship,  which,  though  legally 
elective,  was  appropriated  by  the  Heads, 
and  passed  down  their  list  in  order. 
With  a  single  exception,  the  Headships 


« 1  i «[ 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


107 


were  all  clerical,  and  they  were  almost 
always  filled  by  men  of  temperament, 
to  say  the  least,  eminently  conservative. 
Thus  academical  liberty  and  progress 
slept. 


On  the  eve  of  another  great  storm  we 
have  a  pleasant  glimpse  of  Oxford  life  and 
study  in  Clarendon's  picture  of  Falk- 
land's circle,  at  Great  Tew,  within  ten 
miles  of  Oxford,  whither,  he  says,  "most 
polite  and  accurate  men  of  that  Univer- 
sity resorted,  dwelling  there  as  in  a  College 
situated  in  a  purer  air,  so  that  his  was 
a  University  bound  in  a  less  volume, 
wh-ther  his  intellectual  friends  came  not 
so  much  for  repose  as  study,  and  to  exam- 


J    1,  I.i» 


■i  ■    '    » 


U   ■•■<" 


108 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ine  and  refine  those  grosser  propositions 
which  laziness  and  consent  made  current 
in  conversation."  This  indicates  that, 
while  study  was  going  on,  liberal  inquiry 
was  also  on  foot.  But  clouds  again  gath- 
ered, the  storm  again  came,  and  once  more 
from  the  ecclesiastical  quarter.  The  tri- 
umph of  the  Reformation,  the  accession 
of  a  Protestant  Queen,  and  the  Chan- 
cellorship of  Leicester,  who,  for  politic 
purposes,  played  the  Puritan,  had  been 
attended  by  a  general  expulsion  or  seces- 
sion of  the  Romanising  party,  which  left 
the  University  for  a  time  in  the  hands 
of  the  Calvinists  and  Low  Churchmen. 
Hooker,  the  real  father  of  Anglicanism, 
had,  for  a  time,  studied  Church  antiquity 


I 


) 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


109 


in  the  quiet  quadrangle  of  Corpus,  but  he 
had  come  into  collision  with  Puritanism, 
and  had,  for  a  time,  been  driven  away  by- 
it.     Perhaps  its  prevalence  may  have  ulti- 
mately inclined  him  to  exchange  the  Uni- 
versity for  a  far  less  congenial   sphere. 
The    clergy,   however,   of    an    Episcopal 
Church,   and    one   which    laid    claim    to 
Apostolical  succession,  was  sure  in  time 
to  come  round  to  High  Church  doctrine. 
To   High  Church  doctrine  the  clergy  of 
Oxford  did  come  round  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Laud,  Univer<=ity  Preacher,  Proc- 
tor, President  of  St.  John's  College,  and 
afterwards  Chancellor  of  the  University. 
Of  Laud  there  are  several  memorials  at 
Oxford.     One  is  the  inner  quadrangle  of 


i 


110 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


Ml' 


B  MU 


\i  i 


K!i/;iu 


V 


St.  John's  College,  ornamented  in  the  style 
of  Inigo  Jones,  where  the  Archbishop  and 
Chancellor,  in  the  noontide  of  his  career, 
received  with  ecstasies  of  delight,  eccle- 
siastical, academical,  and  political,  his 
doomed  king  and  master  with  the  fatal 
woman  at  Charles's  side.  Another  is  a 
fine  collection  of  oriental  books  added 
to  the  Bodleian  Library.  A  third  and 
more  important  is  the  new  code  of  stat- 
utes framed  for  the  reformation  of  the 
University  by  its  all-powerful  Chancellor. 
A  fourth  is  the  statue  of  tlie  Virgin  and 
Child  over  the  porch  of  St.  Mary's  Church, 
which,  as  proof  of  a  Romanising  tendency, 
formed  one  of  the  charges  against  the 
Archbishop,  though  it  was  really  put  up 


V 


m 


ST.   MARY'S  CHURCH. 


I  ' 


1 

t 

\' ' 

,  1 

1 
1 1  ' 

;  1 

J 

J.  •> 


«  0 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


Ill 


by  his  Chaplain.  The  fifth  is  the  head- 
less corpse  which  lies  buried  in  the  Chapel 
of  St.  John's  College,  whither  pious  hands 
conveyed  it  after  the  Restoration.  Laud 
was  a  true  friend  of  the  University  and 
of  learned  men,  in  whom,  as  in  Hales, 
he  respected  the  right  of  inquiry,  and  to 
whom  he  was  willing  to  allow  a  freedom 
of  opinion  which  he  would  not  allow  to 
the  common  herd.  He  was  not  so  much 
a  bigot  as  a  martinet.  It  was  by  playing 
the  martinet  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  that 
he  was  brought  into  mortal  collision  with 
the  nation.  In  the  code  of  statutes  which 
by  his  characteristic  use  of  autocratic 
power  he  imposed  on  Oxford  the  martinet 
is  betrayed;  so  is  the  belief  in  the  effi- 


1 
11 


■.'•<■ 


f 


ll! 


m 


■.1  ■\  ■ 


112 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


lilll 


;;i 


;i<  ^^ 


^  ill  ;ll 


cacy  of  regulation.  We  see  the  man  who 
wrecked  a  kingdom  for  the  sake  of  his 
forms.  Nor  had  Laud  the  force  to  deliver 
University  education  from  the  shackles 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  scholastic 
system.  But  the  code  is  dictated  by  a 
genuine  spirit  of  reform,  and  might  have 
worked  improvement  had  it  been  sus- 
tained by  a  motive  power. 

The  period  of  the  Civil  War  is  a  gap  in 
academical  history.  Its  monuments  are 
only  traces  of  destruction,  such  as  the  de- 
facement of  Papistical  images  and  window 
paintings  by  the  Puritan  soldiery,  and  the 
sad  absence  of  the  old  College  plate,  of 
which  two  thousand  five  hundred  ounces 


I 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


113 


4 
I 


3>S 


; 


went  to  the  Royal  mint  in  New  Inn  Hall, 
only  a  few  most  sacred  pieces,  such  as  the 
Founder's  drinking-horn  at  Queen's,  and 
the    covered    cup,    reputed    that    of    the 
Founder,  at  Corpus,  being  left  to  console 
us  for  the  irreparable  loss.     Exeter  Col- 
lege alone  seems   to  have    shown    com- 
punction; perhaps  there  had  remained  in 
her  something  of  the  free  spirit  for  which 
in   the   days   of  Wycliffe   she    had    been 
noted.     Art  and  taste  may  mourn,  but  the 
University,  as  a  centre  of   Episcopalian- 
ism,  had  little  cause  to  complain ;  for  the 
war  was  justly  called  the   Bishops'  war, 
and   by   the   Episcopal   Church  and   the 
Queen,  between  them,  Charles  was  brought 
to  the  block.     Oxford  was  bound  by  her 


114 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


til 


,.i 


\ll 


P  t''  ^l  -v  ^k 


ecclesiasticism  to  the  Royal  cause,  and  she 
had  the  ill  luck  to  be  highly  available  as  a 
place  of  arms  from  her  position  between 
the  two  rivers,  while  she  formed  an  ad- 
vanced post  to  the  Western  country  in 
which  the  strength  of  the  King's  cause  lay. 
During  those  years  the  University  was  in 
buff  and  bandolier,  on  the  drill  ground 
instead  of  in  the  Schools,  while  the  Col- 
leges were  filled  with  the  exiled  Court  and 
its  ghost  of  a  Parliament.  Traces  of  works 
connecting  the  two  rivers  were  not  long 
ago  to  be  seen,  and  tradition  points  to 
the  angle  in  the  old  city  wall  under  Mer- 
ton  College  as  the  spot  where  Windebank, 
a  Royalist  officer,  was  shot  for  surrender- 
ing his  post.     There  was  a  reign  of  garri- 


i 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


115 


son  manners  as  well  as  of  garrison  duties, 
and  to  the  few  who  still  cared  for  the  ob- 
jects of  the  University,  even  if  they  were 
RoyaHsts,  the  surrender  of  the  city  to  the 
Parliament  may  well  have  been  a  relief. 


order  of  thinj^ 


Then  came  Parliamentary  visitation 
and  the  purge,  with  the  inevitable  vio- 
lence and  inhumanity.  Heads  and  Fel- 
lows, who  refused  submission  to  the  new 

were  turned  out.  Mrs. 
Fell,  the  wife  of  the  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  deposed  for  Royaiism,  refused 
to  quit  the  Deanery,  and  at  last  had  to 
be  carried  out  of  the  quadrangle,  vent- 
ing her  wrath  in  strong  lan^^aage  as  she 
went,  by  a  squad  of  Parliamentary  mus- 


I 


1     i   !■■ 


I 


116 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


:•  '1^ 


keteers.  But  the  Puritans  put  in  good 
men:  such  as  Owen,  who  was  made 
Dean  of  Christ  Church ;  Conant,  who  was 
made  Rector  of  Exeter;  Wilkins,  who 
was  made  Warden  of  Wadham ;  and  Seth 
Ward,  the  mathematician,  who  was  made 
President  of  Trinity  College.  Owen  and 
Conant  appear  to  have  been  model  Heads. 
The  number  of  students  increased.  Eve- 
lyn, the  Anglican  and  Royalist,  visiting 
Oxford,  seems  to  find  the  academical 
exercises,  and  the  state  of  the  Universitj/* 
generally,  satisfactory  to  his  mind.  He 
liked  even  the  sermon,  barring'  some 
Presbyterian  animosities.  Nor  did  he 
find  much  change  in  College  Chapels. 
New   College  was   "in   its   ancient  garb, 


m 


:':a 


I  *  ! 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


117 


notwithstanding  the  scrupulosity  of  the 
times."  The  Chapel  of  Magdalen  Col- 
lege, likewise,  was  "in  pontifical  order," 
and  the  organ  remained  undemolished. 
The  Protectorate  was  tolerant  as  far  as 
the  age  allowed.  Evelyn  was  cordially 
received  by  the  Puiitan  authorities  and 
hospitably  entertained.  Puritanism  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  so  very  grim,  what- 
ever the  satirist  in  "  The  Spectator  "  may 
say.  Tavern-haunting  and  swearing  were 
suppressed.  So  were  May-poles  and  some 
innocent  amusements.  But  instrumental 
music  was  much  cultivated,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Royalist  and  High  Church  anti- 
quary Anthony  Wood,  from  whom,  also, 
we  gather  that  dress,  though  less  donnish, 


\  m 


118 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


]] 


)  I 


was  not  more  austere.  Cromwell,  having 
saved  the  Universities  from  fanatics  who 
would  have  laid  low  all  institutions  of 
worldly  learning,  made  himself  Chancellor 
of  Oxford,  and  sought  to  draw  thence,  as 
well  as  from  Cambridge,  promising  youths 
for  the  service  of  the  State.  Even  Clar- 
endon admits  that  the  Restoration  found 
the  University  "abounding  in  excellent 
learning,"  notwithstanding  "the  wild  and 
barbarous  depopulation"  which  it  had 
undergone;  a  miraculous  result,  which  he 
ascribes,  under  God*s  blessing,  to  "ihe 
goodness  and  richness  of  the  soil,  which 
could  not  be  made  barren  by  all  the 
stupidity  and  negligence,  but  choked  the 
weeds,  and  would  not  suffer  the  poison- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


119 


10 

s 


ous  seeds,  which  were  sown  with  industry 
enough,  to  spring  up."  Puritanism  might 
be  narrow  and  bibliolatrous,  but  it  was 
not  obscurantist  nor  the  enemy  of  science. 
We  see  this  in  Puritan  Oxford  as  well  as 
in  Prritan  Harvard  and  Yale.  In  Puritan 
Oxford  the  scientific  circle  which  after- 
wards gave  birth  to  the  Royal  Society 
was  formed.  Its  chief  was  Warden  Wil- 
kins,  and  it  included  Boyle,  Wallis,  Seth 
Ward,  and  Wren.  It  met  either  in  Wil- 
kins's  rooms  at  Wadham,  or  in  those  of 
Boyle.  Evelyn,  visiting  Wilkins,  is  rav- 
ished with  the  scientific  inventions  and 
experiments  which  he  sees.  On  the  stones 
of  Oxford,  Puritanism  has  left  no  trace; 
there    was    hardly   any    building    during 


^ 


120 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


i 


■n\'  : 


I-  \{. 


■"^i 


H 


n; 


those  years.  There  were  benefactions  not 
a  few,  among  which  was  the  gift  of  Sel- 
den's  Library. 

Upon  the  Restoration  followed  a  Royal- 
ist proscription,  more  cruel,  and  certainly 
more  lawless,  than  that  of  the  Puritans 
had  been.  All  the  good  Heads  of  the 
Commonwealth  era  were  ejected,  and  the 
Colleges  received  back  a  crowd  of  Royal- 
ists, who,  during  their  exclusion,  had  prob- 
ably been  estranged  from  academical 
pursuits.  Anthony  Wood  himself  is  an 
unwilling  witness  to  the  fact  that  the 
change  was  much  for  the  worse.  "  Some 
Cavaliers  that  were  restored,"  he  says, 
"  were  good  scholars,  but  the  majority 
were  dunces."    "  Before  the  War,"  he  says 


T 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


121 


in  another  place,  "we  had  scholars  who 
made  a  thorough  search  in  scholastic  and 
polemical  divinity,  in  humane  learning  and 
natural  philosophy,  but  now  scholars  study 
these  things  not  more  than  what  is  just 
necessary  to  carry  them  through  the  exer- 
cises of  their  respective  Colleges  and  the 
University.  Their  aim  is  not  to  live  as 
students  ought  to  do,  temperate,  abstemi- 
ous,  and  plain  in  their  apparel,  but  to  live 
like  gentry,  to  keep  dogs  and  horses,  to 
turn  their  studies  into  places  to  keep  bot- 
tles, to  swagger  in  gay  apparel  and  long 
periwigs/'  Into  the  Rectorship  of  Exeter, 
in  place  of  the  excellent  Conant,  was  put 
Joseph  Maynard,  of  whom  Wood  says, 
"  Exeter  College  is  now  much  debauched 


**■ 


122 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


c 


'■■,;!' 


i' . 


by  a  drunken  Governor ;  whereas,  before, 
in  Doctor  Conant's  time,  it  was  accounted 
a  civil  house,  it  is  now  rude  and  uncivil. 
The  Rector  is  good-natured,  generous, 
and  a  good  scholar,  but  he  has  forgot  the 
way  of  College  life,  and  the  decorum  of  a 
scholar.  He  is  much  given  to  bibbing, 
and  when  there  is  a  music  meeting  in  one 
of  the  Fellow's  chambers,  he  will  sit  there, 
smoke,  and  drink  till  he  is  drunk,  and  has 
to  be  led  to  his  lodgings  by  the  junior 
Fellows."  This  is  not  the  only  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  drinking,  idling,  and 
tavern-haunting  were  in  the  ascendant. 
Study  as  well  as  morality,  having  been  the 
badge  of  the  Puritan,  was  out  of  fashion. 
Wilkins's  scientific  circle  took  its  depart- 


1 1  '1 


!  im 


f^mtnmmmifmmmmii^mttK^ 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


123 


ure  from    Oxford    to    London,    there    to 
become  the  germ  of  the   Royal  Society. 
The  hope  was  gone  at  Oxford  of  a  race  of 
"young  men   provided   against  the   next 
age,  whose  minds,  receiving  the  first  im- 
pressions  of   sober  and  generous   know- 
ledge, should  be  invincibly  armed  against 
all    the    encroachments    of    enthusiasm." 
The  presence  of  the  merry  monarch,  with 
his  concubines,  at  Oxford,  when  his  Parlia- 
ment met  there,  was  not  likely  to  improve 
morals.     Oxford  sank   into   an   organ   of 
the   High   Church   and   Tory  party,  and 
debased  herself  by  servile  manifestos   in 
favour    of    government    by    prerogative. 
Non-conformists    were    excluded    by    the 
religious  tests,  the  operation  of  which  was 


r 


If'  I 


1 


I  > 


ii   I 


7 


/ 


'». 


/* 

«•    » 


/ 


124 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


more  stringent  than  ever  since  the  pass- 
ing of  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  The  love 
of  liberty  and  truth  embodied  in  Locke 
was  expelled  from  Christ  Church;  not, 
however,  by  the  act  of  the  College  or  of 
the  University,  but  by  Royal  warrant, 
though  Fell,  Dean  of  Christ  Church, 
bowed  slavishly  to  the  tyrant's  pleasure; 
so  that  Christ  Church  may  look  with  little 
shame  on  the  portrait  of  the  philosopher, 
which  now  hangs  triumphant  in  her  Hall. 
The  Cavaliers  did  not  much,  even  in  the 
way  of  building.  The  Sheldonian  Thea- 
tre was  given  them  by  the  Archbishop,  to 
whom  subscriptions  had  been  promised, 
but  did  not  come  in,  so  that  he  had  to 
bear  the  whole  expense  himself.     He  was 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


125 


pass- 
!  love 
.ocke 

not, 
or  of 
rrant, 
lurch, 
Lsure ; 

little 
)pher, 
Hall, 
n  the 
rhea- 
)p,  to 
lised, 
id  to 
J  was 


so  deeply  disgusted  that  he  refused  ever  to 
look  upon  the  building. 

Over  the  gateway  of  University  College 
stands  the  statue  of  James  II.  That  it 
should  have  been  left  there  is  a  proof  both 
of  the  ingrained  Toryism  of  old  Oxford, 
and  of  the  mildness  of  the  Revolution  of 
1688.  Obadiah  Walker,  the  Master  of  the 
Colleges,  was  one  of  the  political  converts 
to  Roman  Catholicism,  and  it  was  in  ridi- 
cule of  him  that  "  Old  Obadiah,  Ave 
Maria,"  was  sung  by  the  Oxford  populace. 
A  set  of  rooms  in  the  same  quadrangle 
bears  the  trace  of  its  conversion  into  a 
Roman  Catholic  Chapel  for  the  king.  It 
faces  the    rooms  of    Shelley.     Reference 


■tm 

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126 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


was  made  the  other  day,  in  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal lawsuit,  to  the  singular  practice  which 
prevails  in  this  College,  of  filing  out  into 
the  ante-chapel  after  the  sacrament  to  con- 
sume the  remains  of  the  bread  and  wine, 
instead  of  consuming  them  at  the  altar 
or  communion  table.  This  probably  is 
a  trace  of  the  Protestant  reaction  which 
followed  the  transitory  reign  of  Roman 
Catholicism  under  Obadiah  Walker.  All 
are  familiar  with  the  Magdalen  College 
case,  and  with  the  train  of  events  by 
which  the  most  devoutly  royalist  of  Uni- 
versilies  was  brought,  by  its  connection 
with  the  Anglican  Church  and  in  defence 
of  the  Churches  possessions,  into  collision 
with    the    Crown,   and    arrayed    for    the 


'«!    VV 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


127 


siasti- 
A^hich 
t  into 
)  con- 
wine, 

altar 
)ly  is 
vhich 
Oman 
All 
)llege 
s    by 

Uni- 

ction 

fence 

lision 

the 


moment  on  the  side  of  constitutional  lib- 
erty. After  the  Revolution  the  recoil 
quickly  followed.  Oxford  became  the 
stronghold  of  Jacobitism,  the  scene  of 
treasonable  talk  over  the  wine  in  the 
Common  Room,  of  riotous  demonstrations 
by  pot-valiant  undergraduates  in  the 
streets,  of  Jacobite  orations  at  academical 
festivals,  amid  frantic  cheers  of  the  as- 
sembled University,  of  futile  plotting  and 
puerile  conspiracies  which  never  put  a 
man  in  the  field.  "  The  king  to  Oxford 
sent  a  troop  of  horse."  But  the  troop  of 
horse  was  not  called  upon  to  act.  There 
was  a  small  Hanoverian  and  constitu- 
tional party,  and  now  and  then  it  scored 
a  point  against  its  adversaries,  who  dared 


il 


128 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


not  avow  their  disloyalty  to  the  reign- 
ing dynasty.  A  Jacobite  Proctor,  having 
intruded  into  a  convivial  meeting  of 
Whigs,  they  tendered  him  the  health  of 
King  George,  which,  for  fear  of  the  treason 
law,  he  was  fain  to  drink  upon  his  knees. 


}k 


fPI 


I  \ 


I 


i  ? 


1  I 


^ 


-1 '  i 


In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury there  was  some  intellectual  life  in 
Christ  Church,  to  which  Westminster 
still  sent  up  good  scholars,  and  which  was 
the  resort  of  the  nobility,  in  whom  youth- 
ful ambition  and  desire  for  improvement 
might  be  stirred  by  the  influences  of  polit- . 
ical  homes,  and  the  prospects  of  a  public 
lifj.  Dean  Aldrich  was  a  scholar  and 
a    virtuoso.     The   spire    of    All    Saints' 


#. 


dng 
of 

i  of 
ison 


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in 
ster 
was 
ith^ 
lent 

Dlit-  , 

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md 
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STAIRCASE,   CHRIST  CHURCH 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


129 


•V/'^'N 


■s" 


Church  IS  a  soaring  monument  of  his 
taste,  if  not  of  his  genius,  for  architecture. 
In  the  controversy  with  Bentley  about 
the  Epistles  of  Phalaris,  Christ  Church, 
though  she  was  hopelessly  in  the  wrong, 
showed  that  she  had  some  learning  and 
some  interest  in  classical  studies.  Other- 
wise the  eighteenth  century  is  a  blank,  or 
worse  than  a  blank,  in  the  history  of  the 
University.  The  very  portraits  on  the 
College  walls  disclose  the  void  of  any  but 
ecclesiastical  eminence.  That  tendency  to 
torpor,  which,  as  Adam  Smith  and  Turgot 
have  maintained,  is  inherent  in  the  system 
of  endowments,  fell  upon  Oxford  in  full 
measure.  The  Colleges  had  now,  by  the 
increase  in  value  of  their  estates,  become 


I 


irf 


ts 


r 


I 


1  i  >^! 


II 


F 


130 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


rich,  some  of  them  very  rich.  The  es- 
tates of  Magdalen,  Gibbon  tells  us,  were 
thought  to  be  worth  thirty  thousand 
pounds  a  year,  equivalent  to  double  that 
sum  now.  Instead  of  being  confined  to 
their  original  Commons  and  Livery,  the 
Heads  and  Fellows,  as  administrators  of 
the  estate,  were  now  dividing  among 
themselves  annually  large  rentals,  though 
they  failed  to  increase  in  equal  proportion 
the  stipends  of  the  Scholars  and  others 
who  had  no  share  in  the  administration. 
The  statute'^  of  mediaeval  Founders  had 
become  utterly  obsolete,  and  were  dis- 
regarded, notwithstanding  the  oath  taken 
to  observe  them,  or  observed  only  so  far 
as    they   guarded    the    interest    of    sine- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


131 


curists  against  the  public.  Nor  were  any 
other  duties  assumed.  A  few  of  the  Fel- 
lows in  each  College  added  to  their  income 
by  holding  the  tutorships,  the  functions  of 
which  they  usually  performed  in  the  most 
slovenly  way,  each  Tutor  professing  to 
teach  all  subjects,  while  most  of  them 
knew  none.  In  the  Common  Room,  with 
which  each  of  the  Colleges  now  provided 
itself,  the  Fellows  spent  lives  of  Trullibe- 
rian  luxury,  drinking,  smoking,  playing  at 
bowls,  and,  as  Gibbon  said,  by  their  deep 
but  dull  potations  excusing  the  brisk  in- 
temperance of  youth.  Even  the  obliga- 
tion to  residence  was  relaxed,  and  at  last 
practically  annulled,  so  that  a  great  part 
of  the  Fellowships  became   sinecure  sti- 


*-^ 


'i.i 


M 


lliilil   :  1 


Ul    ■  : 


'^IM'^^* 


132 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


pends  held  by  men  unconnected  with  the 
University.  About  the  only  restriction 
which  remained  was  that  on  marriage. 
Out  of  this  the  Heads  had  managed  to  slip 
their  necks,  and  from  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth downwards  there  had  been  married 
Heads,  to  the  great  scandal  of  Anthony 
Wood  and  other  academical  precisians,  to 
whom,  in  truth,  one  lady,  at  least,  the  wife 
of  Warden  Clayton  of  Merton,  seems  to 
have  afforded  some  grounds  for  criticism 
by  her  usurpations.  But  in  the  case  of 
the  Fellows,  the  statute,  being  not  con- 
structive, but  express,  could  not  be  evaded 
except  by  stealth,  and  by  an  application  of 
the  aphorism  then  current,  that  he  might 
hold  anything  who  would  hold  his  tongue. 


-*~*-i-!=*S 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


133 


The  effect  of  this,  celibacy  being  no 
longer  the  rule,  was  to  make  all  the  Fel- 
lows look  forward  to  the  benefices,  of  a 
number  of  which  each  College  was  the 
patron,  and  upon  which  they  could  marry. 
Thus  devotion  to  a  life  of  study  or  educa- 
tion in  College,  had  a  Fellow  been  inclined 
to  it,  was  impossible,  under  the  ordinary 
conditions  of  modern  life.  Idleness,  in- 
temperance, and  riot  were  rife  among  the 
students,  as  we  learn  from  the  novels  and 
memoirs  of  the  day.  Especially  were 
they  the  rule  among  the  noblemen  and 
gentlemen-commoners,  who  were  privi- 
leged by  their  birth  and  wealth,  and  to 
whom  by  the  servility  of  the  Dons  every 
license  was  allowed.    Some  Colleges  took 


\  \ 


i 


■ill' 


I 


I1:^'J; 


;;l:r^l!  Ill 


134 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


only  gentlemen-commoners,  who  paid 
high  fees  and  did  what  they  pleased.  All 
Souls'  took  no  students  at  all,  and  became 
a  mere  club  which,  by  a  strange  perver- 
sion of  a  clause  in  their  statutes,  was  lim- 
ited to  men  of  high  family.  The  Univer- 
sity as  a  teaching  and  examining  body 
had  fallen  into  a  dead  s^'  ion.  Few  of  the 
Professors  even  went  through  the  form  of 
lecturing,  and  the  statutory  obligation  of 
attendance  was  wholly  disregarded  by  the 
students.  The  form  of  mediaeval  dispu- 
tations was  kept  up  by  the  farcical  repe- 
tition of  strings  of  senseless  syllogisms, 
which  were  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation  of  students.  The  very  no- 
menclature of  the  system  had  become  un- 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


135 


meaning.  Candidates  for  the  theological 
degree  paced  the  Divinity  School  for  an 
hour,  nominally  challenging  opponents  to 
disputation,  but  the  door  was  locked  by 
the  Bedel,  that  no  opponent  might  ap- 
pear. Examinations  were  held,  but  the 
candidates,  by  feeing  the  University  offi- 
cer, were  allowed  to  choose  their  own 
examiners,  and  they  treated  the  examiner 
after  the  ordeal.  The  two  questions, 
"  What  is  the  meaning  of  Golgotha  ? "  and 
"  Who  founded  University  College }  **  com- 
prised the  examination  upon  which  Lord 
Eldon  took  his  degree.  A  little  of  that 
elegant  scholarship,  with  the  power  of  writ- 
ing Latin  verses,  of  which  Addison  was 
the  cynosure,  was  the  most  of  which  Ox- 


m. 


m 


in  ';'' 


I 


!  !;ini       ' 


.1^ 


l!'    .Mi- 


"'  •  ■> 


■I 


,  i 


136 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


ford  could  boast.  Even  this  there  could 
hardly  have  been  had  not  the  learned 
languages  happened  to  have  formed  an 
official  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  cleri- 
cal profession.  Of  science,  or  the  mental 
habit  which  science  forms,  there  was  none. 
Such  opportunities  for  study,  such  libra- 
ries, such  groves,  a  livelihood  so  free  from 
care  could  scarcely  fail,  now  and  then,  to 
give  birth  to  a  learned  man,  an  Addison,  a 
Lowth,  a  Thomas  Warton,  an  Elmsley,  a 
Martin  Routh. 


The  Universities  being  the  regular  fin- 
ishing schools  of  the  gentry  and  the  pro- 
fessions, men  who  had  passed  through 
them   became  eminent  in   after  life,  but 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


137 


they  owed  little  or  nothing  to  the  Uni- 
versity. Only  in  this  way  can  Oxford  lay 
claim  to  the  eminence  of  Bishop  Butler, 
Jeremy  Bentham,  or  Adam  Smith,  while 
Gibbon  is  her  reproach.  The  figures  of 
Lord  Eldon  and  Lord  Stowell,  whose  pon- 
derous twin  statues  sit  side  by  side  in  the 
Library  of  University  College,  were  more 
academical,  especially  that  of  Lord  Stowell, 
who  was  Tutor  of  his  College,  and  held 
a  lectureship  of  Ancient  History.  Here 
and  there  a  Tutor  of  the  better  stamp,  no 
doubt,  would  try  to  do  his  duty  by  his 
pupils.  A  rather  pathetic  interest  attaches 
to  Richard  Newton,  who  tried  to  turn 
Hart  Hall  into  a  real  place  of  education, 
and  had  some  distinguished  pupils,  among 


1  i^ 


■s^ 


■I-  J 


11' 


■:;'' 

) 

\ii' 


r: 


I 


III 


fir 


f-l 


! 


i^- 


i  ^li  ;ii: 


til 


138 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


them  Charles  Fox.  But  the  little  lamp 
which  he  had  kindkd  went  out  in  the 
uncongenial  air.  On  the  site,  thanks  to 
the  munificence  of  Mr.  Baring,  now  stands 
Hertford  College.  Johnson's  residence  at 
Pembroke  College  was  short,  and  his  narra- 
tive shows  that  it  was  unprofitable,  though 
his  High  Church  principles  afterwards 
made  him  a  loyal  son  and  eulogist  of  the 
University.  One  good  effect  the  interdic- 
tion of  marriage  had.  It  kept  up  a  sort  of 
brotherhood,  and  saved  corporate  munifi- 
cence from  extinction  by  the  private  inter- 
est of  fathers  of  families.  As  the  College 
revenues  increased,  building  went  on, 
though  after  the  false  classical  fashion  of 
the  times  and  mostly  for  the  purpose  of 


1;^    I 


\ 


III 
11.^  f 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


139 


of 
of 


College  luxury.  Now  rose  the  new  quad- 
rangle of  Queen's,  totally  supplanting  the 
mediaeval  College,  and  the  new  buildings 
at  Magdalen  and  Corpus.  A  plan  is  ex- 
tant, horrible  to  relate,  for  the  total  demo- 
lition of  the  old  quadrangle  of  Magdalen, 
and  its  replacement  by  a  modern  palace 
of  idleness  in  the  Italian  style.  To  this 
century  belong  Peckwater  and  Canterbury 
quadrangles,  also  in  the  classical  style,  the 
first  redeemed  by  the  Library  which  fills 
one  side  of  the  square,  and  which  has  a 
heavy  architectural  grandeur  as  well  as 
a  noble  purpose.  To  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury we  also  mainly  owe  the  College  gar- 
dens and  walks  as  we  see  them ;  and  the 
gardens  of  St.  John's,  New  College,  Wad- 


:^    ■    t 


!     iii 


140 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


ham,  Worcester,  and  Exeter,  with  the  lime 
walk  at  Trinity  and  the  Broadwalk  —  now 
unhappily  but  a  wreck — at  Christ  Church, 
may  plead  to  a  student's  heart  for  some 
mitigation  of  the  sentence  on  the  race  of 
clerical  idlers  and  wine-bibbers,  who,  for 
a  century,  made  the  University  a  place, 
not  of  education  and  learning,  but  of  dull 
sybaritism,  and  a  source,  not  of  light,  but 
of  darkness,  to  the  nation.  It  is  sad  to 
think  how  different  the  history  of  England 
might  have  been  had  Oxford  and  Can^- 
bridge  done  their  duty,  like  Harvard  and 
Yale,  during  the  last  century. 

At  the  end  of  the  last  or  beginning  of 
the  present  century  came  the  revival.     At 


e  I:me 
—  now 
hurch, 
some 
ace  of 
o,  for 
place, 
f  dull 
it,  but 
ad  to 
gland 
Can^- 
I  and 


ng  of 
At 


W' 


l 


m  ' ' 

! 

!  '    • 

i 

i 

1 

■ 

1  - 

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! 

i 

! 

^i 

i 
1 

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(.  A 


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■  '. 

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fi  V 


OXFORD   AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


141 


the  end  of  the  last  century  Christ  Church 
had  some  brilliant  classical  scholars  among 
her  students,  though  the  great  scene  of 
their  eminence  was  not  the  study  but  the 
senate.  The  portraits  of  Wellesley  and 
Canning  hang  in  her  Hall.  In  the  early 
part  of  the  present  century  the  general 
spirit  of  reform  and  progress,  which  had 
been  repressed  during  the  struggle  with 
revolutionary  France,  began  to  move  again 
over  the  face  of  the  torpid  waters.  Eve- 
leigh,  Provost  of  Oriel,  led  the  way.  At 
his  College  and  at  Balliol  the  elections 
to  Fellowships  were  free  from  local  or 
genealogical  restrictions.  They  were  now 
opened  to  merit,  and  those  two  Colleges, 
though  not  among  the  first  in  wealth  or 


P' 


hi  ■■*' 


r  • 


142 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


magnificence,  attained  a  start  in  the  race 
of  regeneration  which  Balliol,  being  very 
fortunate  in  its  Heads,  has  since  in  a 
remarkable  manner  maintained.  The  ex- 
amination system  of  Laud  had  lacked  a 
motive  power,  and  had  depended,  like  his 
policy,  on  his  fiat  instead  of  vital  force. 
There  was  no  sufficient  inducement  for 
the  examiner  to  be  strict  or  for  the  candi- 
date to  excel.  The  motive  power  was  now 
supplied  by  a  list  of  honours  in  classics 
and  mathematics,  and  among  the  earliest 
winners  in  the  first  class  in  both  schools 
was  Robert  Peel. 


Scarcely,  however,  had   the   University 
begun   to   awake   to   a   new  life,  when  it 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


143 


was  swept  by  another  ecclesiastical  storm, 
the  consequence  of  its  unhappy  identifica- 
tion with  clericism  and  the  State  Church. 
The  liberal  movement  which  commenced 
after  the  fall  of  Napoleon  and  carried  the 
Reform  Bill,  threatened  to  extend  to  the 
religious  field,  and  to  withdraw  the  sup- 
port of  the  State  from  the  Anglican 
Church.  This  led  the  clergy  tc  ^ook  out 
for  another  basis,  which  they  found  in  the 
reassertion  of  High  Church  and  sacerdotal 
doctrines,  such  as  apostolical  succession, 
eucharistical  real  presence,  and  baptismal 
regeneration.  Presently  the  movement  as- 
sumed the  form  of  a  revival  of  the  Church 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  such  as  High  Church 
imagination  pictured  it,  and  ultimately  of 


I 


III,' 

■'■''. 


ii 


^  '!l 


h 


}i  •  r     i 


■f-  ' 


144 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


secession  to  Rome.  Oxford,  with  her  me- 
diasval  buildings,  her  High  Church  tradi- 
tion, her  half-monastic  Colleges,  and  her 
body  of  unmarried  clergy,  became  the 
centre  of  the  movement.  The  Romanis- 
ing tendencies  of  Tractarianism,  as  from 
the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  it  was  called, 
visible  from  the  first,  though  disclaimed 
by  the  leaders,  aroused  a  fierce  Protestant 
reaction,  which  encountered  Tractarian- 
ism both  in  the  press  and  in  the  councils 
of  the  University.  The  Armageddon  of 
the  ecclesiastical  war  was  the  day  on 
which,  in  a  gathering  of  religious  parti- 
sans from  all  sections  of  the  country 
which  the  Convocation  House  would  not 
hold,  so  that  it  was  necessary  to  adjourn 


OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


145 


to  the  Sheldonian  Theatre,  Ward,  the 
most  daring  of  the  Tractarian  writers, 
after  a  scene  of  very  violent  excitement, 
was  deprived  of  his  degree.  This  was  the 
beginning  of  the  end.  Newman,  the  real 
leader  of  the  movement,  though  Pusey, 
from  his  academical  rank,  was  the  official 
leader,  soon  recognised  the  place  to  which 
his  principles  belonged,  and  was  on  his 
knees  before  a  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
supplicating  for  admission  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  A  ritualistic  element  remained, 
and  now  reigns,  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land; but  the  party  which  Newman  left, 
bereft  of  Newman,  broke  up,  and  its  relics 
were  cast  like  drift-wood  on  every  theo- 
logical or  philosophical  shore.     Newman's 


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146 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


poetic  version  of  mediaeval  religion,  to- 
gether with  the  spiritual  graces  of  his 
style  and  his  personal  influence,  had  for 
a  time  filled  the  imaginations  and  car- 
ried away  the  hearts  of  youth,  while  the 
seniors  were  absorbed  in  the  theological 
controversy,  renounced  lay  studies,  and 
disdained  educational  duty  except  as  it 
might  afford  opportunities  of  winning 
youthful  souls  to  the  Neo-Catholic  faith. 
Academical  duty  would  have  been  utterly 
lost  in  theological  controversy,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  Class  List,  which  bound  the 
most  intellectual  undergraduates  to  lay 
studies  by  their  ambition,  and  kept  on 
foot  a  staff  of  private  teachers,  "  coaches," 
as  they  were  called,  to  prepare  men  for 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


147 


the  examinations,  who  did  the  duty  which 
the  ecclesiastical  Fellows  of  the  Univer- 
sity disdained.  The  Oxford  movement 
has  left  a  monument  of  itself  in  the  Col- 
lege founded  in  memory  of  Keble,  the 
gentle  and  saintly  author  of  "  The  Chris- 
tian Year."  It  has  left  an  ampler  monu- 
ment in  the  revival  of  mediaeval  archi- 
tecture at  Oxford,  and  the  style  of  new 
buildings  which  everywhere  meet  the  eye. 
The  work  of  the  Oxford  Architectural 
Society,  which  had  its  birth  in  the  Neo- 
Catholic  movement,  may  prove  more  dur- 
able than  that  movement  itself.  Of  the 
excess  to  which  the  architectural  revival 
was  carried,  the  new  Library  at  Univer- 
sity College,  more  like  a  mediaeval  Chapel 


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OXFORD  AND   HER  COLLEGES. 


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than  a  Library,  is  a  specimen.  It  was 
proposed  to  give  Neo-CathoHcism  yet 
another  monument  by  erecting  close  to 
the  spot  where  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and 
Ridley  died  for  truth,  the  statue  of  Car- 
dinal Newman,  the  object  of  whose  pur- 
suit through  life  had  been,  not  truth,  but 
an  ecclesiastical  ideal.  Of  the  reaction 
against  the  Tractarian  movement  the 
monument  is  the  memorial  to  the  Protes- 
tant martyrs  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and  Rid- 
ley, the  subscription  for  which  commenced 
among  the  Protestants  who  had  come  up 
to  vote  for  the  condemnation  of  Ward,  and 
which  Tractarians  scornfully  compared  to 
the  heap  of  stones  raised  over  the  body  of 
Achan. 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


149 


Here  ended  the  reign  of  ecclesiasticism, 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  of  religious  ex- 
elusion.  The  collision  into  which  Roman- 
ising Oxford  had  been  brought  with  the 
Protestantism  of  the  British  nation,  prob- 
ably helped  to  bring  on  the  revolution 
which  followed,  and  which  restored  the 
University  to  learning,  science,  and  the 
nation.  The  really  academical  element  in 
the  University  invoked  the  aid  of  the 
national  government  and  Legislature.  A 
Royal  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the 
state  of  the  University  and  its  Colleges 
was  appointed,  and  though  some  Colleges 
closed  their  muniment  rooms,  and  inquiry 
was  obstructed,  enough  was  revealed  in 
the    Report    amply  to    justify   legislative 


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150 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


reform  and  emancipation.  An  act  of 
Parliament  was  passed  which  set  free  the 
University  and  Colleges  alike  from  their 
mediaeval  statutes,  restored  the  University 
Professoriate,  opened  the  Fellowships  to 
merit,  and  relaxed  the  religious  tests. 
The  curriculum,  the  examination  system, 
and  the  honour  list  were  liberalised,  and 
once  more,  as  in  early  times,  all  the  great 
departments  of  knowledge  were  recog- 
nised and  domiciled  in  the  University. 
Science,  long  an  exile,  was  welcomed 
back  to  her  home  at  the  moment  when 
a  great  extension  of  her  empire  was  at 
hand.  Strictly  professional  studies,  such 
as  practical  law  and  medicine,  could  not 
be  recalled  from  their  professional  seats. 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


151 


of 


Elections  to  Fellowships  by  merit  re- 
placed election  by  local  or  school  prefer- 
ences, by  kinship,  or  by  the  still  more 
objectionable  influences  which  at  one  time 
had  been  not  unfelt.  Colleges  which  had 
declined  the  duty  of  education,  which  had 
been  dedicated  to  sinecurism  and  indo- 
lence, and  whose  quadrangles  had  stood 
empty,  were  filled  with  students,  and  once 
more  presented  a  spectacle  which  would 
have  gladdened  the  heart  of  the  Founder. 
A  Commission,  acting  on  a  still  more 
recent  Act  of  Parliament,  has  carried  the 
adaptation  of  Oxford  to  the  modern  re- 
quirements of  science  and  learning  further 
than  the  old  Commission,  which  acted  in 
the  penumbra  of  mediaeval  and  ecclesiasti- 


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152 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


cal  tradition,  dared.  The  intellectual  Ox- 
ford of  the  present  day  is  almost  a  fresh 
creation.  Its  spirit  is  new;  it  is  liberal, 
free,  and  progressive.  It  is  rather  too 
revolutionary,  grave  seniors  say,  so  far  as 
the  younger  men  are  concerned.  This  is 
probably  only  the  first  forward  bound  of 
recovered  freedom,  which  will  be  suc- 
ceeded in  time  by  the  sober  pace  of  learn- 
ing and  scientific  investigation.  Again, 
as  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the  day  of 
Grosseteste  and  Simon  de  Montfort,  Ox- 
ford is  a  centre  of  progress,  instead  of 
being,  as  under  the  later  Stuarts,  the 
stronghold  of  reaction.  Of  the  College 
revival,  the  monuments  are  all  around  in 
the   new  buildings,  for  which   increasing 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


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numbers  have  called,  and  which  revived 
energy  has  supplied.  Christ  Church,  New 
College,  Magdalen,  Merton,  Balliol,  Trin- 
ity, University  have  all  enlarged  their 
courts,  and  in  almost  every  College  new 
life  has  been  shown  by  improvement  or 
restoration.  Of  the  reign  of  mediaevalism 
the  only  trace  is  the  prevalence  in  the  new 
buildings  of  the  mediaeval  style,  which 
architectural  harmony  seemed  to  require, 
though  the  new  buildings  of  Christ 
Church  and  Trinity  are  proofs  of  a  happy 
emancipation  from  architectural  tradition. 
The  University  revival  has  its  monument 
in  the  new  examination  Schools  in  High 
Street,  where  the  student  can  no  longer 
get  his  degree  by  giving  the  meaning  of 


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154 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


Golgotha  and  the  name  of  the  Founder 
of  University  College.  There  are  those 
who,  like  Mark  Pattison,  look  on  it  with 
an  evil  eye,  regarding  the  examination 
system  as  a  noxious  excrescence  and  as 
fatal  to  spontaneous  study  and  research; 
though  they  would  hardly  contend  that 
spontaneous  study  and  research  flourished 
muci  t  Oxford  before  the  revival  of  ex- 
aminations, or  deny  that  since  the  revival 
Oxford  has  produced  the  fruits  of  study 
and  research,  at  least  to  a  fair  extent. 
The  restoration  of  science  is  proclaimed 
by  the  new  Museum  yonder;  a  strange 
structure,  it  must  be  owned,  which  sym- 
bolises, by  the  unfitness  of  its  style  for  its 
purpose,  at  once  the  unscientific  character 


:  f 


;.'    I' 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


155 


of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  lingering 
attachment  of  Oxford  to  the  mediaeval 
type.  Of  the  abolition  of  the  religious 
tests,  and  the  restoration  of  the  Univer- 
sity to  the  nation,  a  monument  is  Mans- 
field College  for  Congregationalists,  a 
vision  of  which  would  have  thrown  an 
orthodox  and  Tory  Head  of  a  College 
into  convulsions  half  a  century  ago. 
Even  here  the  mediaeval  style  of  archi- 
tecture keeps  its  hold,  though  the  places 
of  Catholic  Saints  are  taken  by  the  statues 
of  Wycliffe,  Luther,  John  Knox,  White- 
field,  and  Wesley.  By  the  side  of  Mans- 
field College  rises  also  Manchester  College 
for  Independents,  in  the  same  architectu- 
ral style.     Neither  of  them,  however,  is  in 


■^l 


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156 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


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the   Oxford  sense  a  College;    both    are 
places  of  theological  instruction. 

On  the  North  of  the  city,  where  fifty 
years  ago  stretched  green  fields,  is  now 
seen  a  suburb  of  villas,  all  of  them  be- 
speaking comfort  and  elegance,  few  of 
them  overweening  wealth.  These  are 
largely  the  monuments  of  another  great 
change,  the  removal  of  the  rule  of  celi- 
bacy from  the  Fellowships,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  a  large  body  of  married 
teachers  devoted  to  their  profession,  as 
well  as  of  the  revival  of  the  Professorships, 
which  were  always  tenable  by  married  men. 
Fifty  years  ago  the  wives  of  Heads  of 
Houses,  who  generally  married  late  in  life 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


157 


if  they  married  at  all,  constituted,  with 
one  or  two  officers  of  the  University,  the 
whole  female  society  of  Oxford.  The 
change  was  inevitable,  if  education  was  to 
be  made  a  profession,  instead  of  being,  as 
it  had  been  in  the  hands  of  celibate  Fel- 
lows of  Colleges,  merely  the  transitory 
occupation  of  a  man  whose  final  destina- 
tion was  the  parish.  Those  who  remem- 
ber the  old  Common  Room  life,  which  is 
now  departing,  cannot  help  looking  back 
with  a  wistful  eye  to  its  bachelor  ease, 
its  pleasant  companionship,  its  interesting 
talk  and  free  interchange  of  thought,  its 
potations  neither  "  deep  "  nor  "  dull."  Nor 
were  its  symposia  without  important  fruits 
when  such  men  as  Newman  and  Ward, 


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158 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


on  one  side,  encountered  such  men  as 
Whately,  Arnold,  and  Tait,  on  the  other 
side,  in  Common  Room  talk  over  great 
questions  of  the  day.  But  the  life  became 
dreary  when  a  man  had  passed  forty,  and 
it  is  well  exchanged  for  the  community 
that  fills  those  villas,  and  which,  with  its 
culture,  its  moderate  and  tolerably  equal 
incomes,  permitting  hospitality  but  forbid- 
ding luxury,  and  its  unity  of  interests  with 
its  diversity  of  acquirements  and  accom- 
plishments, seems  to  present  the  ideal  con- 
ditions of  a  pleasant  social  life.  The  only 
question  is,  how  the  College  system  will  be 
maintained  when  the  Fellows  are  no  longer 
resident  within  the  walls  of  the  College  to 
temper  and  control  the  younger  members. 


i'j' 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


159 


for  a  barrack  of  undergraduates  is  not  a 
good  thing.  The  personal  bond  and  in- 
tercourse between  Tutor  and  pupil  under 
the  College  system  was  valuable  as  well  as 
pleasant;  it  cannot  be  resigned  without 
regret.  But  its  loss  will  be  compensated 
by  far  superior  teaching.  Half  a  century 
ago  conservatism  strove  to  turn  the  rail- 
way away  from  Oxford.  But  the  railway 
came,  and  it  brings,  on  summer  Sundays, 
to  the  city  of  study  and  thought  not  a  few 
leaders  of  the  active  world.  Oxford  is 
now,  indeed,  rather  too  attractive;  her 
academical  society  is  in  danger  of  being 
swamped  by  the  influx  of  non-academical 
residents. 


ir 


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160 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


'.'  ■•  i; 


The  buildings  stand,  to  mark  by  their 
varying  architecture  the  succession  of  the 
changeful  centuries  through  which  the 
University  has  passed.  In  the  Libraries 
are  the  monuments  of  the  successive  gen- 
erations of  learning.  But  the  tide  of 
youthful  life  that  from  age  to  age  has 
flowed  through  college,  quadrangle,  hall, 
and  chamber,  through  University  exami- 
nation-rooms and  Convocation  Houses, 
has  left  no  memorials  of  itself  except  the  en- 
tries in  the  University  and  College  books ; 
dates  of  matriculation,  which  tell  of  the 
bashful  boy  standing  before  the  august 
Vice-Chancellor  at  entrance ;  dates  of  de- 
grees, which  tell  of  the  youth  putting 
forth,  from  his  last  haven  of  tutelage,  on 


»**;'■ 


^W^' 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


161 


the  waves  of  the  wide  world.  Hither  they 
thronged,  century  after  century,  in  the 
costume  and  with  the  equipments  of  their 
times,  from  mediaeval  abbey,  grange,  and 
hall,  from  Tudor  manor-house  and  home- 
stead, from  mansion,  rectory,  and  commer- 
cial city  of  a  later  day,  bearing  with  them 
the  hopes  and  affections  of  numberless 
homes.  Year  after  year  they  departed, 
lingering  for  a  moment  at  the  gate  to  say 
farewell  to  College  friends,  the  bond  with 
whom  they  vowed  to  preserve,  but  whom 
they  were  never  to  see  again,  then  stepped 
forth  into  the  chances  and  perils  of  life, 
while  the  shadow  on  the  College  dial 
moved  on  its  unceasing  round.  If  they 
had  only  left  their   names   in   the   rooms 

M 


■,  1 


,ri  i 


162 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


which  they  had  occupied,  there  would  be 
more  of  history  than  we  have  in  those  dry 
entries  in  the  books.  But,  at  all  events, 
let  not  fancy  frame  a  history  of  student 
life  at  Oxford  out  of  "Verdant  Green." 
There  are  realities  corresponding  to  "  Ver- 
dant Green,"  and  the  moral  is,  that  many 
youths  come  to  the  University  who  had 
better  stay  away,  since  none  get  any  good 
and  few  fail  to  get  some  harm,  saving  those 
who  have  an  aptitude  for  study.  But  the 
dissipation,  the  noisy  suppers,  the  tandem- 
driving,  the  fox-hunting,  the  running  away 
from  Proctois,  or,  what  is  almost  as  bad, 
the  childish  devotion  to  games  and  sports 
as  if  they  were  the  end  of  existence, 
though  they  are  too  common  a  part  of 


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OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES. 


163 


undergraduate  life  in  the  University  of  the 
rich,  are  far  from  being  the  whole  of  it. 
Less  than  ever  are  they  the  whole  of  it 
since  University  reform  and  a  more  lib- 
eral curriculum  have  increased,  as  cer- 
tainly they  have,  industry  and  frugality  at 
the  same  time.  Of  the  two  or  three  thou- 
sand lamps  which  to-night  will  gleam  from 
those  windows,  few  will  light  the  supper- 
table  or  the  gambling-table;  most  will 
light  the  book.  Youthful  effort,  ambition, 
aspiration,  hope.  College  character  and 
friendship  have  no  artist  to  paint  them, — 
at  least  as  yet  they  have  had  none.  But 
whatever  of  poetry  belongs  to  them  is 
present  in  full  measure  here. 


,, 


r'tav 


1 


INDEX. 


Addison,  Joseph,  136. 
Aldrich,  Henry,  128. 
Alfred  (King),  24,  51. 
All  Souls'  College,  67  et  sq. 
Amusements,  mediaeval,  43. 
Antiquity,    apparent,    of    the 

buildings,  3. 
Architectural  revival  at  Oxford, 

I47»  148. 
Aristotle,  31. 

Ashmolean  Museum,  24. 
Augustinians,  35. 
Auia,  39. 


Bacon,  Roger,  32,  zZf  37- 
Bacon,  Sir  Nicholas,  91. 
Balliol   College,  50;    intellect- 
ual revival  in,  141. 
Baring,  T.  C,  138. 
Benedictines,  35. 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  137. 
Bentley,  Richard,  129. 


Black  Prince,  the,  100. 

Bocardo,  88. 

Bodleian  Library,  19,  20,  21, 

97- 
Bodley,  Sir  Thomas,  20,  93. 
Bologna,  University  of,  29. 
Botanic  Garden,  97. 
Boyle,  Charles,  119. 
Bradwardine,  Thomas,  31. 
Brasenose   College,  67  et  sq,, 

74,  75- 
Broad  walk,  the,  140. 
Brome,  Adam  de,  52. 
Buildings,  dates  of,  3  et  sq. 
Butler,  Bishop,  137. 


Cardinal  College,  83. 

Carmellites,  35. 

Celibacy  enjoined  on  Heads  of 
Colleges,  96;  effects  of  its 
withdrawal,  132,  133. 

Chamberdekyns,  39,  99. 

16s 


( 


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u 


166 


INDEX. 


Charles  I.  at  Oxford,  113,  114. 

Charles  II.  at  Oxford,  123. 

Chicheley,  Archbishop,  70,  71. 

Christ  Church  Cathedral,  35. 

Christ  Church  College,  80  ei 
sq.;  intellectual  revival  in, 
128,  129,  140,  141. 

Cistercians,  35. 

Civil  War,  Oxford  in  the  time 
of  the,  112  et  sq. 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  18,  107. 

Clarendon  Building,  18,  19. 

Qarendon  Press,  19. 

Class  Lists,  142. 

Clayton,  Thos.,  wife  of,  132. 

Clerical  profession,  dominance 
of,  104. 

Colet,  John,  76. 

College  life,  9  et  sq. 

Colleges,  administration  and 
government  of,  9  et  sq.; 
growing  importance  of,  99 
et  sq. ;  the  present  intellect- 
ual revival  in  the,  152  et  sq. 

Commemoration,  15. 

Common  Room  life,  157. 

Commons,  49. 

Commonwealth,  Oxford  in  the 
time  of  the,  1 14  ^/  sq, 

Conant,  John,  116. 


Congregation,  8. 
Convocation,  8. 

Convocation  House,  13, 14,  97. 
Corpus  Christi  College,  75. 
Cranmer,  Archbishop,  88,  89. 
Cromwell,    Oliver,    Chancellor 
of  Oxford,  118. 

Degrees,  manner  of  conferring, 

13. 

Disputation,  stress  laid  upon, 

30. 
Divinity  School,  14. 

Dominicans,  36. 

Duns  Scotus,  31. 

Durham  College,  91. 

Egglesfield,  Robert,  52. 
Eldon,  Lord,  135,  137. 
Elizabeth  (Queen),  98. 
Elmsley,  Peter,  136. 
Erasmus,  D.,  76. 
*'  Essays  and  Reviews,"  authors 

of,  24. 
Eton,  59. 

Eveleigh,  John,  141. 
Evelyn,  John,  116,  119. 
Examinations,  21,  22. 
Examination  system,  the,  153) 

154. 


INDEX. 


167 


Examination  •  rooms.        See 

Schools. 
Exeter  College,  50,  53  et  sq. 

Faculties,  28. 
Falkland,  Viscount,  107. 
Fawkes's  (Guy)  lantern,  2X. 
Fell,  John,  124. 
Fellows,  46. 
Fellowships,  102. 
Fleming,  Bishop,  68. 
Founders,  portraits  of,  21. 
Foxe,  Bishop,  77. 
Franciscans,  36. 
Frydeswide,  St.,  87. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  137. 
Gladstone,  W.  E.,  22. 
Graduation.     See  Degrees. 
Great  Hall  of  the  University, 

the,  51. 
Great  Tew,  107. 
Grocyn,  William,  76. 
Grosseteste,  Robert,  38,  44. 

Halls,  39,  98,  99. 
Hart  Hall,  137. 
Hebdomadal  Council,  106. 
Hertford  College,  i38. 


High  Church  Traditions  at 
Oxford,  144  et  sq* 

Hooker,  Richard,  108. 

Houses,  monastic,  50. 

Humanists,  the,  77. 

Humphrey,  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, 20,  76. 

Inception,  31. 

Jacobitism  at  Oxford,  127,  128. 

James  I.,  22,  98. 

James  II.,  statue  of,  125. 

Jesus  College,  94. 

Jews  at  Oxford  in  the  Middle 

Ages,  42. 
Johnson,  Samuel,   at   Oxford, 

138. 

Keble,  John,  147. 
Keble  College,  147. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  109  et  sq, 

Leicester,  Earl  of,  108. 

Lime  Walk  at  Trinity  College, 

the,  140. 
Linacre,  Thomas,  76. 
Lincoln  College,  67  et  sq. 
Livery,  49. 
Locke,  John,  124. 
Lowth,  Robert,  136. 


^ 


,.  s. 


l<  ■ 


m 


"V 


Et42 


168 


INDEX. 


Magdalen  College,  67  et  sg.t  72 

ei  sf,,  130. 
Magdalen  College  Case,  126. 
Manchester  College,  155. 
Manning,  H.  E.,  24. 
Mansfield  College,  155. 
Marisco,  Adam  de,  44. 
Martyr,  Catherine,  87. 
Maynard,  Joseph,  121. 
Mendicant  Orders,  36. 
Merton,  Walter  de,  44,  45. 
Merton  College,  45  ei  sq. 
Mob  Quad,  45. 
Monastic  Orders,  35. 
Monastic  Oxford,  35. 
Monasteries,  35,  37,  50,  53. 
Montfort,  Simon  de,  37,  38. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  76. 
Museum,  the  Ashmolean.    See 

Ashmolean. 
Museum,  the  University,  153, 

154- 

Neo-Catholicism.     See  Tracta- 

rianism. 
Neville,  George,  loi. 
Newman,  J.   H.,    14,  24,  145, 

148. 
New  College,  55  ^/  sq, 
Newton,  Isaac,  105. 


Newton,  Richard,  137. 

Non- conformists  excluded,  123. 

Ockham,  31. 

Oldham,  Hugh,  78. 

Oriel  College,  50,  52. 

Osney  Abbey,  35. 

Owen,  John,  116. 

Oxford  (the  name),  derivation 
of,  2. 

Oxford  Architectural  Society, 
147. 

Oxford  (the  city) ,  situation  of, 
i;  environs  of,  i,  2;  of  the 
13th  century,  27  et  sq. 

Oxford  (the  University),  ad- 
ministration and  government 
of,  7  et  sq.i  106  et  sq. ;  origin 
and  growth  of,  25  et  sq. ;  po- 
litical proclivities  of,  28,  37, 
105;  in  the  i8th  century, 
12,0  etsq.;  in  the  19th  cen- 
tury, 140  et  sq.;  intellectual 
revival  of,  in  the  present  day, 
152. 

Oxford  Movement,  the.  See 
Tractarianism. 

Oxford  University  Commis- 
sions (1850  and  1876),  149, 
151. 


p': 
w 


INDEX. 


169 


Papacy,  the,  and  the  Universi- 
ties, 34,  37. 

Paris,  University  of,  27,  34. 

Pattison,  Mark,  70. 

Pembroke  College,  97, 

Peel,  Robert,  142. 

Petre,  Sir  William,  93. 

Philippa,  Queen,  52. 

Philosophy,  Scholastic,  early  ad- 
diction to,  30. 

Pope,  Cardinal,  92. 

Pope,  Sir  Thomas,  91. 

Portraits  of  Founders,  21. 

Press,  the  University  {see  also 
Clarendon  Press),  19. 

Proctors,  10,  13,  14. 

Professors,  10. 

Protectorate,  the.  See  Com- 
monwealth. 

Puritanism  and  Oxford,  115  ^/ 

Pusey,  E.  B.,  24,  145. 

Queen's  College,  50,  52. 

Radcliffe,  Dr.  John,  23. 
Radcliffe  Library,  23. 
Reformation,  influence  of,  on 

Oxford,  108,  no. 
Religious  tests,  90. 


Renaissance,  the  Mediaeval,  23. 

Restoration,  the,  and  Oxford, 
1 20  ei  sq. 

Revolution,  the  (1688),  and 
Oxford,  125,  127. 

Richard  III.  at  Oxford,  73,  74. 

Rotheram,  Bishop,  69. 

Routh,  Martin,  136. 

Royal  Commissions.  See  Ox- 
ford University  Commissions. 

Royal  Society,  The,  119  et  sq, 

St.  Frydeswide's  Church,  35. 

St.  John's  College,  92. 

St.   Mary  of  VVinton,  College 

of,  56. 
St.  Mary's  Church,  15,  24. 
St.  Michael's  Church,  25. 
Salerno,  University  of,  27. 
Scholars,  46  et  sq. 
Schools,  the,  21. 
Schools,  the  new  examination, 

153. 
Sermons,  University,  24. 

Sheldon,  Archbishop,  14. 

Sheldonian    Theatre,    14,    15, 

124,  125. 

Smith,  Adam,  137. 

Socii^  46. 

Sports,  162. 


^j:\\ 


'A:m 


r  ■  <:« ' 


-fi 


In 


170 


INDEX. 


Statutes,  fettering  influence  of, 
loi,  102;  disregarded,  130. 

Stowell,  Lord,  137. 

Student  life,  mediaeval,  39  e(  sq», 
63  £t  sg. 

Students,  mediaeval,  39,  41  ^/ 
sg. ;  their  affrays  with  the 
townspeople,  41,  42;  their 
amusements,  43. 

Suburbs  of  Oxford,  156  et  sq. 

Teachers,  the  first,  at  Oxford, 

28. 
Tests.     See  Religious  tests. 
Theology,  32. 

Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester,  73. 
Tom  Tower,  81. 
Tractarianism,  145  et  sq. 
Trinity  College,  91. 
"Trojans,  The,"  77. 
Turner's  picture  of  Oxford,  2. 
Tutors,  9. 

Undergraduate    life,    modern, 

162,  163. 
Universities,  rise  of,  in  Europe, 

27- 
University  College,  51. 

University  Gallery,  21. 


"Verdant  Green,"  162. 
Vice-Chancellorship,  the,  106. 
Vives,  Juan  Luis,  81. 

Wadham,  Dorothy,  96. 

Wadhani,  Sir  Nicholas,  95. 

Wadham  College,  94. 

Walker,  Obadiah,  126. 

Ward,  Seth,  u6. 

Ward,  W.  G.,  145. 

Warton,  Thomas,  136. 

Waynflete,  Bishop,  72,  73. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  his  inau- 
guration as  Chancellor,  17. 

Wesley,  John,  70. 

White,  Sir  Thomas,  92,  93. 

Wilkins,  John,  116,  119,  122. 

William  of  Durham,  50. 

William  of  Wykeham,  55  et  sq, 

Winchester  School,  58. 

Windebank,  Thos.,  114. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  59,  81,  82 
et  sq. 

Wood,  Anthony  {quoted)  ^  120, 
121. 

Worcester  College,  35. 

Wren,  Christopher,  3,  82. 

Wycliffe,  John,  54. 

Wykeham.  See  William  of 
Wykeham. 


een,"  162. 
lorship,  the,  106. 
.uis,  81. 

rothy,  96. 
Nicholas,  95. 
lege,  94. 
iiah,  126. 
[i6. 

.145- 
nas,  136. 

shop,  72,  73. 

)uke  of,  his  inau- 

Chancellor,  17, 

,  70. 

omas,  92,  93. 

,  116,  119,  122. 

irham,  50. 

ykeham,  55  et  sg, 

:hool,  58. 

'hos.,  114. 

inal,  59,  81,  82 

ny  (guofgd)f  120, 

lege,  35. 
pher,  3,  82. 

»54- 

See   William    of 


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